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MacMechen 

Robert  W.Speer, 
a  city  builder 


Library   Bureau  YC6068 


I 


4* 

*      t 


.     '.     -,  '        ' 


ROBERT  W.  SPEER 

A  CITY  BUILDER 


Denver's  Master  Builder 
THE  HONORABLE  ROBERT  W.  SPEER 


ROBERT  W.  SPEER 

A  CITY  BUILDER 


Published  by  Authority  of  the  Council 
City  and  County  of  Denver 


EDITORIAL  STAFF 
Editor-in-Chief,  EDGAR  C.  MACMECHEN 


Associate  Editors 

HON.  W.  F.  R.  MILLS.  Mayor 

HON.  JAMES  A.  MARSH.  City  Attorney 

HON.  j.  A.  BURNETT.  Manager  Improvements  and  Parlu 

HON.  D.  C.  BAILEY.  Manager  Safety  and  Excite 

HON.  CLAIR  J.  PITCHER.  Manager  Revenue 

HON.  W.  H.  SHARPLEY,  M.  D.,  Manager  Health  and  Charity 


'Preface 


I 


is  a  little  book  about  a  big  man.  To  those  who 
knew  Robert  W.  Speer  intimately  it  will  seem  all  too 
incomplete  a  record  of  the  splendid  works  of  his  hand, 
materialized  on  every  street  in  Denver;  of  those  inspired 
vision-children  of  his  brain,  bequeathed  as  a  priceless  legacy  to 
this  city  and,  lastly,  of  his  great  heart. 

Mayor  Speer  excelled  as  a  politician,  as  a  financial  director 
par  excellence,  as  a  builder,  as  an  artist  and  as  a  man.  He 
builded  in  terms  of  the  spirit,  as  well  as  in  stone.  He  left  Denver 
his  indomitable  courage,  his  faith  in  her  continuing  greatness, 
definite  visions  for  public  improvement,  the  highest  and  purest 
civic  ideals  and  the  love  of  a  father  for  a  child. 

It  took  years  for  the  citizens  of  Denver  to  realize  his  real 
worth.  In  the  beginning,  before  his  great  creative  works  had 
been  completed,  he  was  a  decade  in  advance  of  his  fellow  citizens 
in  all  his  plans  for  civic  betterment.  With  the  prophetic  gaze  of 
the  seer  he  saw  the  form  of  the  things  he  had  planned,  where 
others  could  perceive  only  a  shining  vapor.  Happily,  before  his 
untimely  end,  he  had  been  able  to  materialize  so  many  of  his 
visions  that  his  fellow-citizens  gave  him  their  complete  confidence 
and  esteem. 

In  the  appendix  of  this  volume  have  been  printed  a  few 
selected  speeches,  or  excerpts  from  speeches,  delivered  by  Mayor 
Speer.  They  throw  an  illuminating  light  upon  his  character  and 
philosophy  of  life,  more  accurate  than  any  analysis  that  we  could 
make.  They  show  that  his  ideas  might  change,  but  that  the  princi- 
ples upon  which  he  conducted  his  life  were  fixed  and  unalterable. 

This  book  was  written  under  authority  granted  by  the  City 
Council,  and  is  intended  to  serve,  not  alone  as  a  biography,  but 
as  a  public  record  of  Denver's  golden  age  of  development.  We 
believe  it  to  be  a  record  of  city  planning  and  city  building  un- 
equalled in  the  history  of  American  municipalities.  These  cir- 
cumstances made  it  necessary  that  the  chronicle  of  Mayor  Speer's 
achievements  should  be  rather  more  in  detail  than  would  have 
been  necessary  for  the  purposes  of  an  ordinary  biography,  but  the 
editors  console  themselves  for  this  with  the  thought  that  Mayor 
Speer  would  have  preferred  that  such  a  book  should  tell  more  of 
Denver's  advancement  and  less  of  his  personal  attributes. 

The  editors  desire  to  thank  the  following  persons  for  the 
valuable  suggestions  and  assistance  rendered  by  them  in  the 
preparation  of  this  book:  J.  Frank  Adams,  James  H.  MacLennan, 
H.  A.  Lindsley,  Henry  Read,  George  G.  Speer  and  Thomas  Mcllduff. 

E.  c.  M. 


00  O  fc> 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  I 9 

Genealogy  of  the  Speer  Family — War  Record  of  Mayor  Speer's  Father — A  New  Lincoln  Anecdote — 
The  Old  Family  Carriage  Horse — The  Beginning  of  a  Life  Romance — Why  Mr.  Speer  Came  to  Denver — 
His  Picturesque  Start  in  Politics  —  Groundwork  Laid  for  Future  Greatness  — The  First  Mayoralty  Cam- 
paign and  a  Memorable  Victory. 

CHAPTER  II 15 

Beautification  the  Keynote  of  His  First  Two  Terms — Mayor  Speer  a  Trained  Specialist— Auditorium, 
Cherry  Creek  Improvement  and  Civic  Center  Projects  Launched — The  Modern  Park  and  Playground  Sys- 
tem Developed — The  Annual  Tree  Day— Pioneer  Monument  and  Library  Determine  Civic  Center 
Bounds — Bathing  Beaches  Created — Creation  of  Denver's  Million- Dollar  Picture  Park. 

CHAPTER  III 23 

Utilitarian  Improvements  Outstripped  Those  in  Parks — Annual  Expenditures  on  Streets  and  Sewers  Aver- 
aged Million  and  a  Quarter  Dollars  for  Eight  Years — Mayor  Speer  and  the  Public  Utilities — The  Story 
of  Two  Viaducts — Birth  of  Denver's  Lighting  System — His  First  Trip  to  Europe  and  the  Children's 
Fountain — The  Organ  Contract. 

CHAPTER  IV.  35 

Mayor  Speer's  Outstanding  Works — The  Auditorium  His  Favorite  Creation — An  Unparalleled  Enter- 
tainment Program — Love  of  Children  Emphasized — Installation  of  the  Organ — Cherry  Creek  and 
Speer  Boulevard  —  The  Sunken  Gardens  —  History  of  the  Civic  Center  Project — A  Period  of  Stagnation 
— Construction  Commenced  With  the  Return  of  Speer — The  Colonnade  of  Civic  Benefactors,  Built 
Without  Taxation. 

CHAPTER  V 49 

The  Failure  of  Mr.  Speer  as  a  Newspaper  Editor — The  Second  Trip  Abroad — Political  Battles — The 
Historic  Struggle  With  Senator  Patterson—  Defeat  of  Mayor  Speer's  Senatorial  Ambitions  — The  Suc- 
cess of  Arnold  and  the  True  Version  of  the  "  Crowbar  Incident" —  Junking  of  the  Speer  Machine — Fail- 
«  ure  of  Mayor  Arnold  and  Commission  Form  of  Government. 

CHAPTER  VI 55 

Personal  Traits  of  Mayor  Speer—  His  Secret  Service —  Illustrations  of  His  Thoughtful  Kindness — The 
Mayor  and  the  Ragged  Urchin  —  His  Fondness  for  Flowers  and  Birds  — The  Poplars  on  Speer  Boulevard 
— A  Political  Machine  That  Remained  True  Under  an  Unprecedented  Strain — Analysis  of  the  Speer 
Amendment — The  Vindication  of  Mayor  Speer. 

CHAPTER  VII 59 

Third  Term  Mayor  Speer's  Greatest —  Social  Service  the  Dominant  Note  —  Non-partisanship  and  Econ- 
omy Practiced —  Blue-Sky  Ordinance  —  Natural  Habitat  Zoo — City  Chaplaincy  Created — War  Activi- 
ties—  Liberty  Bond  Investment — War  Risk  Insurance  Premiums  —  Municipal  Training  School  for 
Soldiers— Death. 

CHAPTER  VIII 67 

O)  Personal  Interests  Neglected  by  Mayor  Speer  in  Service  of  the  City — His  Vision  for  Denver's  Better- 

ment a  Legacy  of  Incalculable  Value — Overland  Park  —  Decorative  Sculpture — The  Monumental 
Fountain  on  the  Civic  Center  Suggested  as  a  Memorial — His  Last  Vision:  The  Mount  Evans  Drive,  an 

^  Outgrowth  of  the  Mountain  Park  Idea — Conclusion. 

^j     APPENDIX — 

MEMORIAL  RESOLUTION 74 

Xs-  ADDRESSES  OF  ROBERT  W.  SPEER  75 

S 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Denver's  Master  Builder — The  Honorable  Robert  W.  Speer Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Mayor  Speer's  Father 12 

Mayor  Speer's  Mother 12 

Mrs.  Speer,  The  Mayor's  Chief  Adviser 12 

R.  W.  Speer,  When  He  Came  to  Denver 12 

Pioneer  Monument  and  the  Library  Were  Located  With  Purpose 17 

The  Fighting  Face  of  R.  W.  Speer 19 

Former  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  W.  G.  McAdoo,  and  Mayor  Speer 19 

He  Was  a  Lover  of  Plants 19 

Mayor  Speer  Distributed  Over  a  Hundred  Thousand  Trees 19 

"  Keep-off-the-Grass"  Signs  Were  Abolished  by  Mayor  Speer 21 

Washington  Park  Beach  Inaugurated  Open-Air  Bathing  in  Denver 21 

Inspiration  Point,  a  Stroke  of  Genius  That  Cost  a  Bagatelle 25 

Marion  Street  Parkway,  One  of  Mayor  Speer's  Creations 25 

The  Denver  Public  Library,  Built  Under  the  Speer  Regime 26 

Cheesman  Memorial  Was  Presented  During  His  First  Term 26 

Cherry  Creek  Today,  Looking  Across  Speer  Boulevard  and  Part  of  the  Sunken  Gardens 28 

Cherry  Creek  Was  Incorrigible  Until  It  Felt  the  Builder's  Hand 31 

Many  Administrations  Had  Vainly  Tried  to  Solve  the  Problem 31 

The  Municipal  Organ  Will  Ever  Testify  to  the  Indomitable  Will  and  Persistence  of  Denver's  Great  Mayor.     Miss 

Margaret  Wilson  Singing  at  the  Organ  Dedication 32-33 

Cherry  Creek  Subjected — -A  Before-and-After  Contrast 34 

City  Hall  Sat  in  Squalid  Dejection  Upon  Its  Ruining  Banks 34 

Denver's  Civic  Center  in  1919,  from  the  Dome  of  the  State  Capitol.    Court  of  Civic  Benefactors  on  the  Left 36 

Section  of  the  Civic  Center  Site,  as  It  Was  When  Robert  W.  Speer  First  Became  Mayor 37 

Children's  Fountain,  City  Park,  a  Result  of  the  European  Trip 39 

Mayor  Speer's  Last  Great  Vision  Was  the  Mount  Evans  Drive 40 

The  Colonnade  of  Civic  Benefactors  and  Open-Air  Theatre 44 

The  Transverse  Axis  of  the  Civic  Center  from  the  Colonnade 44 

Rear  View  of  the  Stage,  Colonnade  of  Civic  Benefactors 45 

The  Cloistral  Promenade 45 

Colonnade  and  the  Capitol 45 

Sullivan  Memorial  Gate,  Esplanade  Entrance  to  City  Park 51 

The  Esplanade  Before  the  Erection  of  the  Sullivan  Gate 51 

The  Electric  Fountain,  City  Park,  One  of  His  Early  Works 52 

The  Bucking  Broncho,  a  Late  Gift,  Inspired  by  Mayor  Speer 52 

"Wynken,  Blynken  and  Nod",  Ordered  Just  Before  the  Mayor's  Death 52 

"The  State,"  and  Its  Underlying  Virtues  and  Defenses 58 

On  This  Site  Now  Rear  Aloft  the  Cliffs  of  the  Habitat  Zoo 64 

The  Animals  Had  No  Privacy  Save  in  Small  Wooden  Huts 64 

Bars  Have  Been  Banished  and  Comfort  Brought  to  the  Animals 65 

A  Splendid,  Uncompleted  Vision — The  Platte  River  Drive 69 

Rear  View  of  the  Auditorium,  Mayor  Speer's  Favorite  Work,  on  the  Day  of  His  Funeral 70 


"Robert  W.  Speer  was  more  than  Denver's 
most  distinguished  citizen;  he  was  a  con- 
structive idealist,  whose  broad  humanitarian- 
ism  will  be  found,  as  the  years  go  by,  to  have 
left  a  deep  impression  upon  the  civic  life 
of  the  United  States." 

J.  HORACE  MCFARLAND, 

President  American  Civic  Association. 


DEDICATED  TO  KATE  A.  SPEER 


Copyright,  1919,  by 
THE  ROBERT  W.  SPEER  MEMORIAL  ASSOCIATION 

From  the  frits  tf 

Tilt  Smith- Brooki  Printing  Comfanj 
Dtm.tr,  Colorad* 


ROBERT  W.  SPEER— A  CITY  BUILDER 

CHAPTER  I. 

Genealogy  of  the  Speer  Family — War  Record  of  Mayor  Speeds  Father 
—A  New  Lincoln  Anecdote — The  Old  Family  Carriage  Horse — The  Be- 
ginning of  a  Life  Romance — Why  Mr.  Speer  Came  to  Denver — His  Pic- 
turesque Start  in  Politics — Groundwork  Laid  for  Future  Greatness — The 
First  Mayoralty  Campaign  and  a  Memorable  Fictory. 

RBERT  W.  SPEER,  three  times  mayor  of  Denver,  came  to  this  city  while  it  was  still 
a  rough,  frontier  town.  He  was  a  mere  boy  then,  a  sufferer  from  tuberculosis, 
without  friends  or  money.  Denver  gave  him  back  his  health;  in  return  he  gave 
her  his  life.  When  he  died  in  the  Mayor's  chair,  May  14,  1918,  his  reputation 
as  a  municipal  expert  had  become  world-wide.  He  had  accomplished  in  a  decade  what 
ordinarily  would  have  required  a  generation.  Denver,  under  his  guiding  hand,  became 
the  distinctive  metropolis  that  it  is  today. 

Mayor  Speer  began  his  real  career  as  a  dabbler  in  politics,  attracted  by  the  fascination 
of  the  game.  To  a  man  of  his  strong  character  and  masterful  brain  the  game  soon  proved 
not  worth  the  candle.  He  sought  an  earnest  purpose  in  life,  one  which  would  give  oppor- 
tunity for  the  dominant,  creative  instinct  that  lay  dormant  within  him.  This  outlet  he 
found  in  city  building,  and  his  impelling  interest  in  politics  from  that  time  forward  was  to 
secure  the  power  necessary  to  give  expression  to  this  impulse.  The  government  of  cities 
became,  first  his  hobby,  then  the  all-mastering  passion  of  his  life.  With  the  exception  of 
four  years,  spent  as  postmaster  of  Denver,  he  never  held  a  political  office  that  was  not 
municipal.  He  often  said  that  he  would  rather  be  mayor  of  Denver  than  governor  of 
Colorado.  In  his  later  years  he  cherished  an  ambition  to  become  United  States  senator, 
but  back  of  this  was  a  concrete  program  for  the  betterment  of  his  city  and  state. 

This  brief  foreword  is  necessary  that  the  reader  may  understand  as  he  peruses  the 
succeeding  pages,  the  almost  fanatical  devotion  of  Mayor  Speer  to  the  study  of  city  govern- 
ment, and  the  application  of  his  knowledge  to  the  city  of  his  adoption. 

Like  so  many  of  America's  brainiest  and  strongest  men,  Mayor  Speer  was  of  Scotch- 
Irish  extraction.  From  the  Scot  he  inherited  those  admirable  qualities  of  tenacity,  and 
hard,  common  sense;  from  the  Irishman  he  drew  a  warm,  impulsive  nature,  an  aggressive 
disposition  and  vision.  So  many  men  have  one  without  the  other.  The  man  of  affairs 
rarely  is  endowed  with  creative  vision,  whereas  the  dreamer  frequently  does  not  possess 
the  strength  of  purpose  and  practical  ability  to  materialize  his  dreams.  Mayor  Speer 
was  of  that  rare,  composite  type,  able  both  to  conceive  and  to  execute. 

The  first  trace  of  Mayor  Speer's  family  is  found  in  the  Seventeenth  Century  at  the 
time  of  the  Claverhouse  persecutions  in  Scotland.  Among  the  refugees  who  fled  to  the 
north  of  Ireland  was  a  Covenanter  preacher,  who  bore  the  name  of  Speer. 

The  direct  line  of  descent  became  clear  with  Robert  Speer,  known  to  have  been  a 
descendant  of  this  preacher,  and  Jean  Quate  Speer.  The  latter  was  born  in  Bronghshane, 
Ballymena,  Ireland,  and  died  March  30,  1833.  Robert  Speer  had  six  children,  one  of  whom, 
John  Speer,  became  a  farmer  at  Ballyrobert,  Ireland,  and  leased  his  farm,  for  which  he 
paid  one  hundred  pounds  per  year  rent,  from  the  Marquis  of  Donegal.  John  Speer  died 
March  5,  1834.  His  widow,  Agnes  Martin  Speer,  came  to  America  in  June,  1841,  and  died 
at  Fairfield,  Iowa,  January  20,  1861. 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

John  Speer  had  nine  children,  of  whom  Robert  Speer,  the  grandfather  of  Denver's 
great  mayor,  was  one.  Robert  Speer  was  born  February  27,  1803,  married  Agnes  Cowan 
at  Belfast,  Ireland,  January  17,  1822,  and,  a  few  months  later,  sailed  with  his  bride  for  the 
United  States.  An  old  church  letter,  now  in  possession  of  George  Gray  Speer,  of  Denver, 
gives  an  interesting  sidelight  upon  the  character  and  reputation  of  the  Speer  family.  A 
strong  religious  vein,  inherited  from  the  straight-laced,  God-fearing,  Protestant  stock,  ran 
in  their  blood.  The  text  of  the  letter  follows: 

"That  Robert  Speer  and  his  wife,  Agnes  Cowan,  now  Speer,  were  born  and  bred  in 
this  congregation,  and  that  they  have  from  infancy  conducted  themselves  with  prudence 
and  propriety,  now  admitted  to  the  Lord's  table,  are  at  present  in  full  communion  with  us, 
and  now  leave  us  free  from  all  scandal  and  church  censure  and  may  be  admitted  members 

of  whatever  worthy they  see  fit  to  join. 

CRAIG,  Presbyterian  Minister. 

22"* 

Several  other  members  of  the  Speer  family  had  preceded  the  young  emigrants  to 
America,  and  it  was  to  the  home  town  of  one  of  these,  Gordon  Speer,  an  uncle,  that  they 
came.  They  settled  in  Shade  Gap,  Huntingdon  County,  Pennsylvania,  later  moving  to 
Cassville,  Pennsylvania,  in  1826,  and  to  Fairfield,  Iowa,  in  1851.  Robert  Speer  died  there 
the  following  year,  his  wife  having  passed  away  before  the  family  left  Cassville. 

Robert  Speer  left  ten  children,  of  whom  George  Washington  Speer  was  the  father  of 
Denver's  mayor.  George  W.  Speer  was  born  in  Shade  Gap,  August  9,  1825;  married  Jane 
Ann  Brewster  on  October  29,  1851,  and  died  at  Mount  Union,  Pennsylvania,  on  February 
2,  1864.  Jane  Brewster  Speer  was  born  in  Path  Valley,  Pennsylvania,  June  9,  1829,  and 
died  at  Mount  Union,  November  20,  1888. 

Robert  Walter,  Denver's  future  mayor,  was  still  a  very  small  boy  when  his  father 
died,  but  his  mother  lived  for  several  years  after  Robert  had  begun  the  political  career 
that  was  to  lead  to  fame  and  honor.  All  of  Robert  Speer's  boyhood  acquaintances  unite 
in  saying  that  she  was  a  woman  of  splendid  moral  fibre,  capable  and  purposeful  in  the  guid- 
ance and  instruction  of  her  children.  Many  of  her  admirable  qualities  were  inherited  by 
Robert,  and,  when  at  the  zenith  of  his  power,  the  latter  acknowledged  his  debt  to  her  in 
an  address  before  the  Denver  Chamber  of  Commerce.  He  prefaced  his  remarks -with 
these  words: 

"My  mother  was  a  quiet  woman;  by  some  she  might  have  been  called  a  little  old- 
fashioned  and  slow.  She  always  stood  for  the  right,  the  just,  the  good,  and  no  sacrifice 
was  ever  too  great  for  her  to  make  for  those  she  loved.  Her  memory  is  a  legacy  of  more 
real  value  than  gold." 

The  members  of  George  Washington  Speer's  family  were  born  in  Cassville,  but  later 
the  family  moved  to  Mount  Union  while  the  children  were  still  young.  Four  of  these 
reached  their  majority:  John  Brewster,  Robert  Walter,  Margaret  Isabella  and  George 
Gray  Speer.  Robert  was  born  December  1,  1855. 

Mayor  Speer's  father  attained  considerable  distinction  during  the  Civil  War.  He 
was  Colonel  of  the  149th  Pennsylvania  Volunteer  Regiment,  known  as  the  "Bucktails," 
because  officers  and  men  all  wore  bucktails  in  their  caps  to  signify  that  they  came  from  the 
mountainous  region,  and  were  crack  shots.  The  regiment  became  famous  for  its  fighting 
qualities,  but  their  colonel  was  early  transferred  to  Washington,  where  he  served  as  assistant 
provost  marshal  of  the  United  States,  with  the  rank  of  major.  There  is  an  interesting  Lin- 
coln anecdote  detailed  in  one  of  the  young  officer's  letters  to  his  family,  dated  January  21, 
1863.  The  letter  contains  this  reference  to  the  martyred  president: 


'  Blanks  represent  part  of  the  letter  torn  off  and  lost. 

10 


A   CITY   BUILDER 

"Sunday  morning  at  eleven  I  went  to  hear  Bishop  Simpson  preach  on  missions.  The 
house  was  densely  packed  and,  when  President  Lincoln  came  in,  he  could  scarcely  get  a 
seat.  The  Bishop  opened  my  heart  for  the  first  time  to  the  importance  of  missions.  After 
they  had  raised  about  3500  and  had  got  about  all  that  appeared  could  be  got,  I  raised  up 
and  stated  that  I  would  give  310  toward  making  Abraham  Lincoln  a  life  director  of  the 
society  if  the  audience  would  raise  the  other  3140.  Lincoln  got  up  and  told  the  Bishop 
that  he  would  pay  the  other,  but  the  audience  raised  it  at  once,  and  such  shouting  and 
praying  you  would  hardly  think  could  be  tolerated  here,  as  was  heard  for  the  next  ten  min- 
utes. The  Bishop  said  that  it  was  a  noble  suggestion  of  that  young  officer,  and  Lincoln  came 
and  gave  me  his  hand,  and  asked  me  to  call  on  him  often.  The  meeting  broke  up  at  two  p.  m." 

The  first  incident  that  comes  to  the  attention  of  the  biographer  of  Mayor  Speer  illus- 
trates a  trait  strongly  emphasized  in  his  later  life — love  of  dumb  animals.  It  occurred  dur- 
ing the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  in  July,  1863,  when  the  sound  of  the  cannon  and  the  arrival 
of  Confederate  prisoners  at  Mount  Union  brought  news  to  the  residents  that  a  great  battle 
was  in  progress.  Many  rumors  began  to  float  into  the  little  town.  Some  said  that  Lee's 
army  was  winning,  and  that  the  gray-clad  patrols  of  Dixieland  soon  would  be  pushing  their 
way  through  the  streets.  A  panic  seized  upon  the  inhabitants  and  some  of  the  more 
excitable  began  to  move  their  valuables  to  Jack's  Mountains,  some  fifteen  miles  distant. 
Among  this  hurrying  throng  might  have  been  seen  two  small  boys,  mounted  upon  a  fat 
and  protesting  old  horse,  who  swished  his  tail  angrily  at  the  drumming  of  four  small  heels 
upon  his  ancient  sides.  It  was  the  faithful  carriage  horse,  rheumatic  with  age,  but  in  the 
eyes  of  Robert  and  George  Speer,  the  most  valuable  possession  of  the  Speer  family. 

As  a  boy  Mayor  Speer  attended  the  Dickenson  Academy  at  Williamsport,  Pennsyl- 
vania. At  the  same  time  his  sister  was  a  student  in  the  girls'  seminary  there  and  had,  as 
her  closest  friend,  Kate  A.  Thrush,  the  daughter  of  a  minister  of  the  gospel  at  Lewistown, 
Pennsylvania.  One  day  the  two  girls  were  rowing  upon  the  river  that  runs  through  the 
town,  when  the  boat  capsized.  Young  Robert  was  within  sight  of  the  accident  and,  leap- 
ing into  the  water,  he  rescued  both.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  romance  that  lasted 
throughout  his  life,  for  Kate  Thrush  afterward  became  Mrs.  Speer  and  the  center  of  an 
ideal  home  life. 

Robert  Speer  began  his  business  career  as  ticket  agent  at  Shirleysburg,  Pennsylvania, 
and  later  returned  to  Mount  Union  as  an  employee  of  the  Adams  Express  Company.  After 
a  few  months  he  secured  a  position  with  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  at  Altoona,  Pennsyl- 
vania. His  sister  had  fallen  a  victim  to  tuberculosis  and,  while  Robert  was  in  Altoona, 
had  gone  to  Illinois.  It  became  evident  that  she  could  not  hope  for  a  cure  in  that 
climate,  so  the  family  determined  that  she  should  try  Colorado.  Robert  was  called  upon 
to  act  as  her  escort,  and,  giving  up  his  position,  he  took  his  sister  to  Pueblo,  Colorado, 
where  they  remained  during  the  summer  of  1877.  The  life  of  the  frontier  town  proved  too 
raw  for  the  eastern  girl,  and,  like  many  another  tubercular  victim  of  those  days,  she  said 
that  she  preferred  to  return  to  her  home  town  to  die.  In  the  fall  of  1877  they  returned  to 
Mount  Union,  where,  shortly  afterward,  Margaret  Speer  passed  away.  Robert  had  resumed 
his  position  with  the  express  company,  at  the  same  time  reading  law  in  the  office  of  his  uncle, 
Robert  Melton  Speer,  of  Huntingdon  County,  Pennsylvania.  In  the  early  part  of  1878 
he  was  seized  with  a  violent  hemorrhage.  He  was  then  compelled  to  seek  Colorado  for 
his  own  health,  and  came  to  Denver.  He  merely  passed  through  the  city  on  this  occasion, 
going  to  a  ranch  in  the  country.  Naturally  possessed  of  a  powerful  physique,  he  threw  off 
the  disease  and  returned  to  Denver,  where  he  secured  a  position  as  carpet  salesman  in  the 
Daniels  &  Fisher  stores  at  a  salary  of  38  a  week.  The  lint  and  dust  of  the  carpets  acted 
as  an  irritant  to  his  lungs,  and  he  was  transferred  to  the  office  force.  Because  of  his  beau- 

11 


Mrs.  Speer,  the  Mayor's  Chief  Adviser. 


R.  W.  Speer,  When  He  Came  to  Denver. 


S 


12 


A   CITY   BUILDER 

tiful,  vertical  penmanship,  he  was  assigned  the  task  of  writing  the  reports  that  were  for- 
warded to  stockholders  in  New  York.  Yearning  for  an  outdoor  life,  Mr.  Speer  left  the 
employ  of  Daniels  &  Fisher  to  associate  himself  with  Cyrus  H.  McLaughlin  in  the  real 
estate  business,  which  relationship  existed  until  his  election  as  city  clerk.  It  was  while 
occupying  this  position  that  he  began  to  take  an  active  interest  in  politics.  Possessed 
of  an  open,  frank,  winning  nature,  he  quickly  made  friends  and  soon  was  counted  as  one 
of  the  coming  young  men  of  the  party.  He  made  a  trip  to  Lewistown  in  1882  long  enough 
to  marry  Kate  Thrush  on  May  16th  of  that  year,  returning  to  Colorado  immediately 
afterward. 

Mayor  Speer  repeatedly  said  that  the  city  which  gave  him  back  his  health  was  good 
enough  for  him.  He  loved  Denver  as  he  might  have  loved  a  child  of  his  own — it  was  his 
child  and  he,  above  any  other  single  man,  helped  to  mould  its  destiny. 

The  youthful  Speer,  still  in  his  twenties,  early  manifested  a  genius  for  political  leader- 
ship. Within  two  years  after  his  marriage  he  had  become  prominent  in  Democratic  circles. 
The  Republicans  at  that  time  were  entrenched  in  City  Hall.  The  City  Council,  then 
composed  of  a  board  of  aldermen,  was  Republican  by  one  majority.  The  time  arrived  for 
the  election  of  a  city  clerk,  April  10th,  1884.  When  the  vote  was  cast,  a  secret  ballot,  it  was 
found  that  R.  W.  Speer  had  been  elected  to  succeed  C.  F.  Leimer,  a  Republican.  An  open 
poll  of  the  vote  was  demanded,  but  this  produced  a  solid  majority  vote  for  the  Republican. 
The  Republican  friend  of  the  young  Democrat  did  not  want  to  be  caught  in  political 
treachery,  then  much  more  serious  than  in  later  years.  The  Republican  incumbent  of  the 
office  refused  to  give  it  up  on  the  strength  of  the  verbal  poll,  but  young  Speer  had  been 
elected  on  the  legal  ballot  and  was  not  a  man  to  be  denied  his  rights.  He  and  his  friends 
went  to  the  City  Hall  at  night  to  gain  possession  of  the  office  by  a  ruse,  but  his  opponent 
had  been  expecting  such  a  move,  and  was  already  in  the  office,  prepared  for  a  long  stay. 
There  followed  a  short  parley,  a  demand  for  the  keys  of  the  office,  a  curt  refusal,  and  the 
next  moment  Leimer  found  himself  seated  in  the  hallway,  ruffled  in  spirit,  but  unhurt. 
This  ended  the  contest  over  the  office.  From  this  time  until  his  appointment  as  postmaster 
of  Denver  by  President  Cleveland  in  1885,  Speer  remained  city  clerk.  Four  years  were 
spent  in  the  service  of  the  federal  government.  Mr.  Speer  then  returned  to  the  real 
estate  business,  which  he  conducted  until  his  election  as  mayor.  In  1891  John  L.  Routt, 
one  of  Colorado's  empire  builders,  became  governor  of  the  state.  He  had  been  mayor  at 
the  time  that  the  young  Democratic  leader  had  been  elected  city  clerk,  and  admired  the 
fighting  qualities  of  the  man.  The  legislature  had  just  created  by  statute  the  fire  and  police 
board  of  Denver,  placing  the  appointive  power  for  the  offices  in  the  hands  of  the  governor. 
Governor  Routt  named  two  Republicans  and  one  Democrat,  the  latter  Robert  W.  Speer. 
Soon  the  governor  began  to  hear  complaints  from  his  party  leaders.  "We  are  supposed  to 
have  a  Republican  fire  and  police  board  in  Denver,"  was  the  burden  of  the  plaint,  "but 
there  is  a  young  Democratic  fellow  down  there  at  City  Hall  who  is  running  the  whole 
thing."  In  spite  of  these  protests  R.  W.  Speer  continued  to  "run  things"  until  the 
expiration  of  his  term. 

While  police  commissioner  of  Denver,  under  the  Routt  regime,  Mr.  Speer  laid  the 
foundation  for  the  powerful  Democratic  machine  of  later  years.  The  two  Republican 
members  of  the  board  could  not  work  in  harmony,  and  neither  would  vote  to  confirm  an 
appointment  of  the  other.  Each  sought  the  vote  of  the  Democratic  member  to  secure  the 
appointment  of  his  friends.  Mr.  Speer  was  quick  to  take  advantage  of  the  opportunity 
offered,  and  whenever  he  voted  for  the  confirmation  of  a  Republican  applicant  it  meant 
that  one  or  the  other  of  the  Republican  members  had  been  pledged  to  vote  for  a  Demo- 
cratic appointee  in  return.  By  working  one  against  the  other  Mr.  Speer,  although  entitled 

13 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

to  no  appointments  according  to  the  political  standards  of  that  day,  secured  an  equal 
number  of  all  appointments  made,  and  divided  the  political  make-up  of  the  fire  and  police 
force  effectively. 

With  the  election  of  Alva  Adams  as  governor  in  1897  Mr.  Speer  again  became  a  public 
office  holder.  He  was  appointed  police  commissioner  in  April  of  that  year,  served  until 
April,  1899,  was  then  appointed  fire  commissioner  by  Governor  Charles  S.  Thomas  and 
served  in  this  capacity  until  April,  1901.  On  June  1st  of  the  latter  year  Governor  James  B. 
Orman  appointed  him  president  of  the  board  of  public  works  of  Denver,  and,  in  this  capac- 
ity, he  served  until  June  1st,  1904.  During  all  these  years,  feeling  between  the  state  and  the 
city  of  Denver,  stirred  by  politicians  for  selfish  purposes,  had  been  growing  more  bitter. 
It  resulted  in  the  submission  of  an  amendment  to  the  Colorado  State  Constitution,  which 
was  adopted  as  Article  XX.  This  document  consolidated  the  city  and  county  government 
of  Denver,  divorced  it  from  the  County  of  Arapahoe,  and  gave  the  new  city  and  county 
political  independence  in  local  and  municipal  affairs.  A  charter  convention  was  called 
and,  on  March  4,  1904,  the  people  of  Denver  adopted  their  charter.  Immediately  after- 
ward R.  W.  Speer  became  a  candidate  for  mayor,  was  elected,  and  on  June  1st  of  that  year 
took  office. 

The  election  campaign  was  characteristic  of  his  indomitable  will.  Every  newspaper 
in  the  city  was  opposed  to  him,  favoring  a  business  man's  candidate.  The  first  act  of 
Mayor  Speer  was  to  buy  up  all  the  best  billboard  space  in  the  city  and  to  plaster  these 
boards  with  facts  concerning  his  accomplishments  on  the  fire  and  police  board,  and  the 
board  of  public  works.  To  this  he  added  defiance  of  the  newspaper  combination,  set  forth 
in  those  terse,  epigrammatic  sentences  of  which  he  was  past  master.  During  his  service  on 
the  boards  mentioned  he  had  built  up  the  greatest  political  machine  in  Denver's  history, 
a  compact,  fighting  power  which  nothing  could  shake  in  its  allegiance  to  its  leader.  Those 
were  the  days  when  political  machines  flourished,  and  R.  W.  Speer  had  created  a  master- 
piece of  its  kind.  Often  since  that  day  newspaper  commentators  have  said  of  him  that 
he  bound  his  friends  by  "hoops  of  steel,"  an  apt  quotation,  because  these  men  and  women 
were  his  faithful  supporters  to  the  day  of  his  death. 

Thus  began  the  eight  golden  years  of  Denver's  development. 


ill// 


14 


CHAPTER  II. 

Beautification  the  Keynote  of  His  First  Two  Terms — Mayor  Speer  a 
Trained  Specialist — Auditorium,  Cherry  Creek  Improvement  and  Civic 
Center  Projects  Launched — The  Modern  Park  and  Playground  System 
Developed— The  Annual  Tree  Day — Pioneer  Monument  and  Library 
Determine  Civic  Center  Bounds — Bathing  Beaches  Created — Creation 
of  Denver'' s  Million-Dollar  Picture  Park. 

So  INTERWOVEN  was  the  constructive  development  of  Mayor  Speer's  first  two  terms 
that  they  may  be  considered  as  one  from  a  biographical  standpoint.  Beautification 
was  the  keynote  of  this  period.  The  general  appearance  of  the  city  changed  com- 
pletely. The  parks  were  expanded  and  brought  to  a  high  state  of  culture,  the 
boulevard  and  parkway  system  was  created,  the  streets  assumed  a  finished,  metropolitan 
aspect,  the  number  of  shade  trees  increased  at  least  twenty-five  per  cent. 

There  also  was  remarkable  improvement  in  public  works  not  visible  to  the  eye;  in  the 
mileage  and  size  of  sanitary  and  storm  sewers.  Underground  conduits  were  constructed 
in  the  business  section  to  carry  all  telegraph  and  telephone  wires  that  previously  had  cob- 
webbed  the  streets. 

At  the  same  time  numerous  and  important  social  service  labors  of  a  communal, 
recreational  and  economic  nature,  were  performed.  Of  these  the  development  of  an  unpar- 
alleled free  municipal  entertainment  program  in  connection  with  the  auditorium,  and  the 
popularizing  of  the  parks,  were  the  most  pronounced. 

Denver  was  but  an  overgrown  country  town  when  Mayor  Speer  assumed  the  reins  of 
government.  Public  improvements  had  been  made  in  a  haphazard  way  without  system 
or  vision.  City  planning,  as  it  is  now  known,  had  not  become  the  absorbing  problem  of 
municipal  students  and  builders  that  it  is  today.  Before  the  modern  city  planning  move- 
ment had  come  into  vogue  Denver's  mayor  had  established  a  comprehensive  plan  that 
would  provide  for  the  city's  needs  in  the  distant  future. 

The  years  of  preparation  gained  as  a  municipal  officer  had  equipped  Mayor  Speer 
for  the  work  before  him  as  few  city  officials  in  this  country  ever  have  been  equipped  before 
taking  office.  He  demonstrated  fully  the  value  to  a  city  of  a  specialist,  trained  in  the 
affairs  of  city  government.  He  was  the  forerunner  of  a  type  that  eventually  will  serve 
the  public  in  an  official  capacity.  It  is  even  now  in  course  of  evolution  through  the  adoption 
of  the  manager  form  of  government.  Neither  the  rank  opportunist,  nor  the  highly  trained 
business  man,  as  a  general  rule,  is  competent  to  step  into  the  mayoralty  office  of  a  great 
city  and  successfully  manage  the  people's  affairs.  The  one  does  not  know  enough  about 
ordinary  business  conditions;  the  other  often  has  affiliations  too  closely  connected  with 
big  interests  to  serve  the  people  disinterestedly. 

Mayor  Speer,  through  his  preliminary  training,  had  secured  an  intimate  and  practical 
knowledge  of  the  methods  and  needs  of  every  city  department.  He  was  always  a  close 
observer  and  had  formulated  concrete  ideas  of  development.  This  was  demonstrated 
during  the  first  few  months  of  his  administration  when  he  launched  the  Cherry  Creek 
improvement,  the  auditorium  bond  issue,  and,  shortly  afterward,  the  civic  center  project. 
It  was  imperative  that  the  man  who  hoped  to  carry  to  a  successful  conclusion  this  stu- 
pendous program  should  be  a  tireless  worker,  whose  recreation  should  lie  in  his  work.  This 
was  the  case  with  Mayor  Speer.  During  his  entire  official  life  he  worked  almost  every 

15 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

night,  spent  Sunday  mornings  in  his  office,  read  municipal  works,  official  reports,  state- 
ments and  specifications  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  forms  of  literature.  Although  not  a 
product  of  higher  education  as  it  is  known  today  he  had  secured  a  good  academic  foundation. 
Insofar  as  his  knowledge  of  public  affairs  is  concerned  he  was  self-taught.  His  marvellous 
faculty  of  concentration,  and  his  desire  to  be  thorough  in  every  act,  enabled  him  to  be  both 
student  and  creative  artist  at  one  and  the  same  time. 

The  first  few  years  of  the  Speer  administration  were  largely  formative,  during  which 
were  inaugurated  projects  that  their  author  knew  would  require  time  for  their  accomplish- 
ment. Still,  he  was  able,  during  this  period  of  his  stewardship,  to  bring  to  maturity  many 
works,  rated  by  the  world  as  among  his  less  important  achievements,  yet  each  contributing 
to  a  general  purpose. 

One  of  the  first  problems  to  be  met  in  1904  was  the  organization  of  the  park  depart- 
ment on  a  business  basis.  The  new  charter  laid  an  injunction  upon  the  incomimg  mayor 
to  provide  for  future  needs  of  the  city. 

Prior  to  the  adoption  of  the  charter  the  total  park  area  had  been  572.60  acres,  for 
acquisition  of  which  the  city  had  paid  33,110,005.56.  Mayor  Speer  appointed  a  park  com- 
mission, with  power  to  name  a  superintendent  and  assistants,  and  to  expend  the  park  levy. 

Four  park  districts  were  created  from  the  one  that  had  existed,  the  people  authorizing 
bond  issues  in  the  following  amounts  during  the  years  designated;  Highland  Park  District 
on  the  north  side,  bonded  in  1906  for  $230,000;  South  Denver  Park  District,  bonded  in  1907 
for  ?243,500;  Montclair  Park  District,  bonded  in  1908  for  3397,700;  East  Denver  Park 
District,  bonded  in  1912  for  32,700,000.  During  the  eight  consecutive  years  from  1904 
to  1912  the  park  area  increased  to  1,183.53  acres,  and  the  total  land  valuation  was  swelled 
to  36,598,000.  During  the  same  period  expenditures  for  permanent  park  improvements 
totalled  3620,641.31. 

The  parks  in  existence  at  the  time  of  Mayor  Speer's  entrance  into  office,  practically 
speaking,  were  unimproved.  In  addition  to  their  improvement  he  added  Berkeley  Lake, 
Rocky  Mountain  Lake,  Sloan  and  Cooper  Lakes,  besides  many  smaller  areas.  A  beautiful 
boulevard  system,  laid  out  by  George  E.  Kessler  of  Kansas  City,  was  established,  and 
eighteen  miles  of  boulevards  and  parkways,  with  side  or  center  parking,  were  constructed. 
Included  in  the  boulevard  system  so  created  is  Speer  Boulevard  and  Marion  Street  Parkway, 
both  of  exceptional  beauty  and  both  possessing  unique  features.  The  former  involved 
the  walling  of  Cherry  Creek,  more  fully  discussed  in  a  later  chapter,  and  the  latter  the  park- 
ing of  the  City  Ditch.  In  this  instance  the  sides  of  the  ditch  were  lined  with  concrete, 
sloping  terraces  created,  and  a  center  parking  plan  of  great  attraction  worked  out.  The 
double  boulevard  thus  created  converted  a  sparsely  settled  country  road  into  a  magnifi- 
cent residence  street,  and  served  to  connect  Denver's  premier  landscape  parks,  Cheesman 
and  Washington.  Considerable  area  was  added  to  Washington  Park,  and  a  second  lake 
constructed  in  the  newer  or  southern  half. 

Early  in  his  first  term  Mayor  Speer  ordered  the  removal  from  the  parks  of  all  "Keep- 
ofF-the-Grass"  signs.  People  were  invited  to  make  the  same  free  use  of  them  as  they  would 
•of  their  lawns  at  home,  and  one  of  the  most  interesting  sights  that  may  be  seen  in  Denver 
parks  occurs  nearly  every  afternoon  during  the  summer,  beginning  about  four  o'clock. 
Thousands  of  citizens,  with  their  children,  troop  into  City  Park  and  Washington  Park  with 
basket  lunches  in  their  hands.  They  find  some  cozy  corner  along  the  shady  borders,  or 
under  the  trees,  and  have  delightful  picnic  parties.  The  park  crews  make  the  rounds  every 
evening  and  pick  up  all  rubbish  and  papers.  Several  of  the  lakes  are  well  stocked  with 
black  bass  and  perch,  and  these  were  thrown  open  for  free  fishing.  The  mayor's  park 
policy  called  for  their  use  to  the  fullest  extent. 

16 


Pioneer  Monument  and  the  Library  Were  Located  With  Purpose 


17 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

Mayor  Speer  was  quick  to  discern  that  parks,  the  more  beautiful  they  became,  would 
attract  attention  to  the  barrenness  of  their  surroundings,  unless  the  residence  streets  kept 
pace  with  them  in  the  beauty  and  variety  of  their  verdure.  It  is  very  generally  known, 
even  to  those  who  have  never  visited  the  city,  that  Denver  is  located  on  what  was  once 
part  of  the  Great  American  Desert.  Originally  its  site  was  covered  by  buffalo  grass  and 
sage,  except  for  a  scattering  line  of  cottonwoods,  cherry  and  plum  trees  along  the  South 
Platte  river.  In  the  older  sections  of  the  city  trees  had  been  planted  by  the  early  settlers, 
but  in  1904  the  newer  sections  were  still  without  shade.  Mayor  Speer  conceived  the  idea 
of  giving  away  saplings  free  of  charge  to  citizens,  with  the  request  that  they  be  planted 
in  the  street  parkings.  The  first  tree  day  was  held  in  April,  1905.  At  this  time  4,992 
trees  were  distributed.  Three  trees  were  presented  to  each  person  bearing  an  order  from 
the  mayor  or  a  member  of  the  city  council,  and,  accompanying  the  gift,  was  a  printed  set 
of  instructions  as  to  their  proper  location  and  care.  This  custom  was  continued  for  seven 
years,  the  last  tree  day  occurring  April  19,  1912,  when  18,000  young  elm  and  maple  trees 
were  distributed.  The  total  number  of  saplings  given  away  during  this  period  was  111,000, 
of  which  nearly  eighty  per  cent,  survived.  The  average  annual  cost  was  $5,000,  taken 
from  the  fund  contributed  annually  by  the  Denver  City  Tramway  Company  as  a  condition 
of  its  franchise. 

The  custom,  involving  as  it  did  a  comparatively  small  outlay  of  money,  was  among 
the  most  highly  appreciated  acts  performed  under  the  Speer  administration.  Only  those 
who  have  lived  in  the  semi-arid  West,  without  protection  from  the  blazing  lancers  of  the 
sun,  can  realize  what  it  meant  in  comfort,  in  restfulness  to  the  aching  eye,  and  in  increased 
property  values. 

The  modern  playground  system  of  Denver  was  created  by  Mayor  Speer,  and  its  devel- 
opment carried  along  in  conjunction  with  the  expansion  and  development  of  the  park 
system.  Between  1904  and  1912,  the  playground  system  was  built  up  from  nothing. 
Twelve  equipped  and  supervised  playgrounds  were  bequeathed  by  his  administration 
and  many  more  built  in  the  parks. 

Practically  all  the  architectural  improvements  of  the  parks  were  built  under  Mayor 
Speer's  administration.  The  first  of  these  was  the  William  W.  McLellan  gateway  at  the 
Eighteenth  Street  entrance  to  the  City  Park,  a  handsome  gray  granite  structure  that  cost 
$13,700.  It  was  presented  by  a  former  member  of  the  city  council,  father  of  the  ordinance 
for  the  purchase  of  City  Park.  The  ordinance  for  construction  was  passed  in  1903,  while 
Mr.  Speer  was  president  of  the  board  of  public  works,  and  it  was  completed  during  his  first 
year  as  mayor.  Mayor  Speer  always  loved  to  refer  to  this  gateway  as  a  laudable  example 
of  civic  patriotism,  for  McLellan  was  a  man  of  moderate  means  and  probably  gave  half 
his  fortune  in  an  effort  thus  to  stir  civic  pride  in  other  citizens. 

Erection  of  the  Welcome  Arch  at  the  foot  of  Seventeenth  street,  closely  followed. 
This  great  structural  iron  archway,  standing  directly  in  front  of  the  Union  Station,  was 
the  gift  of  a  combination  of  corporations,  civic  organizations  and  individuals.  It  cost 
approximately  $30,000  and  was  dedicated  on  July  4,  1906.  The  arch  was  studded  with 
incandescent  lights  so  that  incoming  visitors,  whether  they  arrived  by  day  or  night,  were 
greeted  by  the  simple  word  "Welcome"  on  the  span  of  the  structure.  No  single  public 
donation,  perhaps,  has  more  widely  advertised  Denver,  for  its  picture  on  colored  post  cards 
was  sent  to  all  parts  of  the  civilized  world.  On  the  reverse  side  was  "Mizpah,"  a  Hebraic 
word  from  the  Old  Testament,  meaning  "The  Lord  watch  between  me  and  thee,  when  we 
are  absent  one  from  another." 

In  1908  the  electric  fountain  in  the  large  City  Park  lake  was  completed  and  operated 
in  connection  with  the  nightly  band  concerts  by  the  Denver  Municipal  Band.  During 

18 


Former  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
W.  G.  McAdoo,  and  Mayor  Speer 


Mayor  Speer  Distributed  Over  a  Hundred  Thousand  Trees. 


19 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

intermissions  the  fountain  leaps  from  the  bosom  of  the  lake  like  a  glowing  jewel.  It  throws 
4,000  gallons  of  water  a  minute,  has  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  water  formations  and 
nine  color  combinations.  It  cost  $19,577,  and  was  erected  from  general  revenues. 

The  Pioneer  Monument  on  the  civic  center  was  the  result  of  another  joint  subscription 
by  corporations,  individuals,  the  State  of  Colorado  and  the  City  of  Denver.  The  state 
donated  $10,000  and  the  city  gave  $7,500  and  the  site.  The  total  cost  was  $75,000.  This, 
one  of  the  most  distinctive  monuments  of  the  city,  immortalizes  the  hardships,  the  courage 
and  the  triumph  of  the  early  pioneer.  The  equestrian  statue  of  Kit  Carson  crowns  the 
monument.  Around  the  base  are  three  groups,  depicting  "The  Pioneer  Mother",  "The 
Trapper"  and  "The  Prospector",  all  resolute  and  distinctive  types  of  frontier  days. 
Frederick  Macmonnies  designed  the  fountain,  which  was  dedicated  on  March  30,  1910. 

The  Pioneer  Monument  and  the  Denver  Public  Library,  the  latter  dedicated  on  No- 
vember 1,  1909,  were  the  features  that  definitely  fixed  the  site  of  the  civic  center.  The 
library  stands  on  the  corner  of  West  Colfax  avenue  and  Bannock  street,  and  cost  $450,000, 
of  which  Andrew  Carnegie  gave  $200,000.  The  building  is  strictly  classical  in  design  and 
constructed  of  Colorado  gray  sandstone.  This  stone  is  the  same  that  was  used  later  in  the 
construction  of  the  Court  of  Civic  Benefactors,  so  that  the  influence  of  the  building  upon 
the  material  and  architecture  of  the  civic  center  has  been  determinative.  Before  Mayor 
Speer  left  office  $80,000  additional  was  given  by  Mr.  Carnegie  for  the  construction  of  four 
branch  buildings.  The  sites  were  selected  and  the  plans  approved  by  the  library  com- 
mission and  the  mayor  before  he  left  office  in  1912. 

The  year  1909  also  saw  the  completion  of  the  Cheesman  Memorial.  This  handsome 
white  marble  structure,  patterned  after  the  Roman  Doric,  stands  upon  a  high  eminence 
in  what  was  originally  Congress  Park.  It  was  presented  by  the  widow  and  daughter  of 
Walter  S.  Cheesman,  one  of  Denver's  pioneer  builders,  and  cost  $100,000.  The  name  of 
the  park  was  changed  by  the  city  in  honor  of  the  donor. 

These  were  busy  years  in  the  life  of  Mayor  Speer.  One  improvement  after  another 
marched  in  rapid  succession  before  the  astonished  eyes  of  Denver's  citizens.  The  city's 
first  municipal  golf  links  were  established  and  opened  in  Berkeley  Park  during  the  fall 
of  1910. 

In  June,  1911,  Denver's  bathing  beach  system  was  inaugurated  by  the  execution  of 
a  contract  for  erection  of  a  bath  house  and  construction  of  a  beach  in  the  northern  Wash- 
ington Park  lake.  This  had  been  preceded  in  1908,  on  July  23rd,  by  the  opening  of  a 
public  bath  house  at  Twentieth  and  Curtis  streets.  The  land  and  building  cost  $87,000 
and  it  was  fitted  with  a  large  pool,  showers  and  complete  accessories.  Its  popularity  was 
enormous,  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  people  using  it  the  first  year.  Two 
years  later  the  open-air  swimming  pool  for  children,  in  Lincoln  Park,  was  completed.  The 
dedication  took  place  on  June  4,  1910.  The  basin  was  a  small  one,  forty  by  one  hundred 
feet,  and  the  bath  house  at  one  end  was  not  sufficient  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  chil- 
dren. The  improvement  was  built  largely  as  an  experiment,  but  from  the  date  of  its 
opening  there  was  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of  Mayor  Speer  that  the  Denver  public  wanted 
bathing  beaches. 

The  following  year  a  contract  was  signed  for  the  erection  of  the  large  bath  house  in 
Washington  Park.  The  history  of  the  bathing  beach  movement  in  Denver  is  exceedingly 
interesting,  for  when  the  city  was  founded  there  was  nothing  in  the  form  of  a  lake  on  its 
site.  Every  lake  was  scooped  from  the  dusty  prairie,  or  water  from  the  streams  was  diverted 
to  fill  some  natural  depression  in  the  ground.  No. city  ever  overcame  such  obstacles  to 
secure  so  simple  and  desirable  a  landscape  feature  as  did  Denver  in  securing  her  park  lakes. 
The  Washington  Park  beach  was  opened  before  the  bath  house  had  been  completed,  and 

20 


I 


E 


"Kecp-off-the-Grass"  Signs  Were  Abolished  by  Mayor  Speer. 


Washington  Park  Beach  Inaugurated  Open-Air  Bathing  in  Denver. 


21 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

so  enthusiastic  were  the  throngs  that  crowded  the  shore  that  the  success  of  the  venture 
was  fully  established  at  once.  The  succeeding  administration  erected  a  second  bath  house 
at  Berkeley  Park. 

Of  all  Mayor  Speer's  minor  park  improvements  there  was  one,  however,  that  stood 
forth  as  a  stroke  of  pure  genius.  This  was  the  improvement  of  Inspiration  Point,  Denver's 
unique  and  unrivaled  picture-park.  Early  in  the  year  1910  Mayor  Speer  asked  the  city 
attorney  for  an  opinion  as  to  whether  the  city  had  the  power  to  purchase  property  outside 
its  legal  boundaries.  H.  A.  Lindsley,  at  that  time  counselor  for  the  city,  rendered  an  opin- 
ion which  held  that  the  city  could  not  acquire  property  of  this  character.  The  reason  for 
the  inquiry  was  that  Mayor  Speer  desired  to  secure  a  high  point  of  land,  which  overlooked 
Clear  Creek,  and  to  use  it  for  park  purposes.  His  subsequent  action  in  regard  to  this  matter 
illustrates  in  a  very  striking  and  characteristic  manner  his  decisive  methods  and  superior 
executive  qualities.  He  called  upon  John  McDonough,  a  real  estate  man  and  member 
of  the  park  commission,  to  buy  up  in  McDonough 's  name  all  the  land  necessary  to  fulfill 
his  purpose.  The  owner  of  this  land,  in  Jefferson  County,  had  not  paid  taxes  upon  it  for 
some  seven  or  eight  years,  and  the  Mayor  personally  gave  Mr.  McDonough  the  money  to 
buy  up  the  tax  certificates  from  the  county  of  Jefferson.  When  he  had  secured  title  to  the 
land  he  made  the  city  of  Denver  this  offer:  "I  now  have  title  to  Inspiration  Point.  If 
the  city  desires  to  acquire  and  improve  this  point  for  park  purposes  I  will  give  it  a  deed  at 
the  cost  of  acquisition;  if  not  I  will  keep  the  land  myself."  The  city  accepted  the  offer, 
a  concrete  wall  was  thrown  about  the  rim  of  the  hill,  and  a  surfaced  driveway  was  built 
from  Berkeley  Park  to  the  spot.  The  cost  of  the  land  was  approximately  $8,000. 

From  the  point  an  uninterrupted  view  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  stretching  north 
and  south  for  two  hundred  miles,  is  obtainable.  At  the  extreme  north  Long's  Peak  stands 
out  like  a  sentinel  from  the  main  range;  on  the  south  historic  Pike's  Peak  lifts  its  lion-like 
bulk  into  the  air.  The  beautiful  Clear  Creek  valley,  checkered  with  orchards,  truck  gar- 
dens and  small  farms,  lies  at  the  feet  of  the  spectator.  For  an  outlay  of  some  $8,000  Denver 
secured  a  million-dollar  picture.  This  is  its  sole  purpose;  it  holds  nothing  else  of  interest. 
The  point  was  opened  for  automobilists  in  1910  and  is  regarded  as  one  of  Mayor  Speer's  most 
distinctive  achievements. 

It  must  not  be  imagined  that  these  undertakings  were  accomplished  without  bitter 
opposition.  Hardly  a  month  passed  but  that  he  was  assailed  by  his  enemies,  who  had  with 
them  two  and  sometimes  three  of  the  leading  newspapers  of  the  city.  It  doubled  the  mag- 
nitude of  his  works,  and  left  those  who  witnessed  the  struggle  to  wonder  how  much 
greater  would  have  been  his  success  had  he  been  given  the  support  his  genius  merited. 


22 


CHAPTER  III. 

Utilitarian  Improvements  Outstripped  Those  in  Parks- — Annual  Expend- 
itures on  Streets  and  Sewers  Averaged  Million  and  a  Quarter  Dollars  for 
Eight  Years — Mayor  Speer  and  the  Public  Utilities — The  Story  of  Two 
Viaducts — Birth  of  Denver's  Lighting  System — His  First  Trip  to  Europe 
and  the  Children's  Fountain — The  Organ  Contract. 

WHILE  MAYOR  SPEER  was  carrying  out  his  plans  for  beautifying  Denver  he  was, 
at  the  same  time,  advancing  other  projects  of  a  more  utilitarian  nature.  Pub- 
lic improvements  in  grading,  curbing,  surfacing  and  paving  streets;  in  laying 
sidewalks  and  sewers,  building  bridges,  viaducts  and  a  subway  under  the  rail- 
road tracks,  outstripped  the  expenditure  on  parks  and  boulevards. 

There  had  been  an  accumulation  of  law  suits,  extending  over  a  long  period  of  years, 
and  before  Mayor  Speer's  great  improvement  program  could  be  launched  effectively  it  was 
necessary  that  this  legal  debris  should  be  cleared  from  his  path.  City  Attorney  H.  A. 
Lindsley  filed  a  motion  with  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  state  to  advance  twenty-seven  special 
improvement  district  cases  then  pending  before  that  body.  The  motion  was  denied. 
Thereupon  the  city  attorney  secured  from  the  membership  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce 
and  other  commercial  bodies,  a  monster  petition,  which  requested  the  court  to  advance 
these  cases  in  the  interest  of  Denver.  This  petition  had  a  humorous  but  instantaneous 
effect.  The  Court  refused  to  allow  Mr.  Lindsley  to  file  it,  but  asked  him  to  renew  his  motion. 
This  being  done  the  cases  were  promptly  advanced  and  decided,  and  a  legal  situation  ended 
that  undoubtedly  saved  Mayor  Speer  two  years  time  in  constructive  development  of  the  city. 

During  the  eight  years  of  these  two  administrations  the  average  annual  expenditure 
for  the  work  just  cited  was  a  million  and  a  quarter  of  dollars.  On  June  1,  1904,  the  total 
value  of  street,  sidewalk  and  sewer  improvement  was  $7,490,715.43.  On  June  1,  1912, 
it  was  $17,283,201.26. 

The  cost  of  sewer  improvements  alone  equalled  the  amount  of  the  civic  center  bond 
issue.  Two  hundred  and  sixty-two  miles  of  storm  and  sanitary  sewers  were  laid  at  a  cost 
of  $2,758,000.  Two  hundred  and  thirteen  miles  of  streets  were  graded,  one  hundred  and 
sixteen  miles  were  surfaced,  thirty-five  miles  of  street  and  alleys  were  paved,  four  hundred 
and  forty-one  miles  of  curbing  and  three  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  sidewalks  were  laid. 
This  was  accomplished  through  the  establishment  of  local  improvement  districts,  for  which 
property  owners  had  petitioned.  The  largest  sewer  project  was  that  of  the  West  and 
South  Side  sanitary  sewer,  completed  in  the  spring  of  1912.  It  drained  an  area  of  twenty- 
four  square  miles  and  involved  one  hundred  miles  of  main  line  pipe. 

To  facilitate  the  paving  work  Mayor  Speer  established  a  municipal  asphalt  plant  at 
a  cost  of  $25,000.  It  was  located  at  Myrtle  Place  and  Shoshone  Street,  and  was  opened 
for  business  August  1,  1911.  This  was  one  of  the  first  municipal  asphalt  plants  in  the 
country,  and  served  continuously  up  until  the  present  year,  when  the  city  acquired  a  more 
commodious  plant  at  the  end  of  the  Twentieth  Street  viaduct  under  the  administration 
of  Mayor  W.  F.  R.  Mills. 

Soon  after  his  election  in  1904  the  practiced  eye  of  Mayor  Speer  detected  a  dispro- 
portionate expense  in  the  repair  of  highway  vehicles.  He  built  the  first  real  city  shops 
in  1905  at  936  Twelfth  street.  When  these  quarters  became  inadequate  in  1912  he  built 
the  present  shops  at  Thirteenth  and  Market  streets. 

23 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

One  of  the  favorite  modes  of  attack  against  R.  W.  Speer  was  to  make  the  accusation 
that  he  was  a  corporation  man.  Mayor  Speer  never  could  tolerate  a  professional  reformer. 
He  doubted  the  sincerity  of  this  type  and  distrusted  its  representatives.  But  he  gave 
abundant  and  conclusive  proof  on  numerous  occasions  that  he  was  under  the  thumb  of  no 
corporation  or  individual.  He  believed  in  getting  results,  and  because  of  his  willingness 
to  negotiate  with  public  utility  and  railroad  corporations  was  able  to  secure  from  them 
more  concessions  in  the  interest  of  the  people  than  any  other  administration  before  or 
after  his  time.  When  the  Denver  City  Tramway  Company  and  the  Denver.Gas  &  Electric 
Light  Company  submitted  franchise  propositions  to  the  people  on  May  15,  1906,  it  was 
the  mayor  who  insisted  that  these  franchises  should  carry  a  provision  for  payment  of  an 
annual  sum  into  the  city  treasury.  In  the  case  of  the  Tramway  Company  the  amount 
was  fixed  at  $60,000  a  year,  and  in  the  case  of  the  Gas  Company  at  $50,000  a  year.  He 
also  forced  a  reduction  in  the  annual  charge  for  arc  lights  from  $90  to  $60  a  year.  Con- 
siderable criticism  was  directed  toward  him  in  connection  with  the  latter  contract.  The 
city  at  that  time  owned  a  small  lighting  plant  in  West  Denver,  the  Lacombe  Plant,  which, 
in  order  to  serve  adequately  the  city's  needs  would  have  required  a  heavy  outlay  of  money. 
Mayor  Speer  did  not  believe  that  Denver  was  ready  for  the  establishment  of  a  municipal 
light  plant,  and  considered  it  a  better  business  proposition  to  permit  the  Gas  Company 
to  purchase  this  plant.  This  was  done.  Like  any  transaction  of  a  similar  nature,  how- 
ever, the  question  was  capable  of  transformation  into  political  propaganda,  and  his  enemies 
took  full  advantage  of  their  opportunity. 

The  most  complete  answer  to  charges  that  he  had  corporation  leanings,  however, 
may  be  found  in  his  negotiations  for  the  construction  of  the  Twentieth  Street  viaduct, 
the  Alameda  subway  and  several  bridges.  About  the  time  that  his  second  term  opened 
the  need  of  a  viaduct  over  the  railroad  crossings  at  Twentieth  street  became  pressing.  For 
fifteen  years  previous  administrations  had  attempted  to  force  construction  of  such  a  via- 
duct by  the  railroads,  but  the  matter  had  been  held  up  by  litigation.  In  1908  Mayor 
Speer  determined  that  the  city  should  no  longer  be  balked  in  its  desire  for  such  an  improve- 
ment. He  instructed  the  city  attorney  to  dismiss  all  pending  litigation  in  connection  with 
the  matter.  Naturally  this  caused  a  fresh  outbreak  of  accusations  by  his  political  oppo- 
nents, but  this  did  not  disturb  the  man  at  City  Hall.  His  next  step  was  to  call  a  meet- 
ing of  the  presidents  of  the  railroads  involved.  The  response  showed  that  the  railroad 
officials  regarded  this  merely  as  another  annoying  incident.  They  sent  local  representa- 
tives to  the  mayor's  office  on  the  appointed  day.  When  these  men  walked  into  Mayor 
Speer's  presence  the  latter  inquired  their  business. 

"We  have  been  delegated,"  was  the  unanimous  reply,  "to  negotiate  with  you  in  regard 
to  the  Twentieth  Street  Viaduct." 

"I  invited  the  presidents  of  your  roads  to  attend  a  meeting  for  that  purpose," 
suavely  replied  the  mayor,  "but  I  have  nothing  to  take  up  with  you  gentlemen.  This  meet- 
ing will  be  adjourned  now." 

The  next  day  an  ordinance  was  introduced  in  the  city  council  which  required  that  the 
railroads  should  maintain  watchmen  at  the  Twentieth  street  crossing,  and  that  all  incoming 
and  outgoing  trains  should  come  to  a  full  stop  at  Nineteenth  and  Twenty-first  streets,  and 
await  a  signal  from  the  watchman  to  proceed.  Those  were  days  when  city  councils  were 
supposed  to  be  open  to  manipulation,  and  the  railroad  officials  merely  smiled.  Imagine 
their  chagrin  and  annoyance  when  they  found  that  the  usual  methods  were  without  avail. 
The  council,  composed  for  the  most  part  of  ardent  Speer  followers,  turned  a  cold  ear  to  the 
railroad  agents,  and  passed  the  ordinance.  Again  the  presidents  of  the  roads  were  notified 

24 


Inspiration  Point,  a  Stroke  of  Genius  That  Cost  a  Bagatelle. 


Marion  Street  Parkway,  One  of  Mayor  Speer's  Creations. 


25 


The  Denver  Public  Library,  Built  Under  the  Speer  Regime. 


Cheesman  Memorial  Was  Presented  During  His  First  Term. 


26 


A   CITY   BUILDER 

and  this  time  every  one  was  on  hand  promptly.  The  session  opened  with  danger  signals 
flying  in  the  offing.  The  officials  were  angry  and  inclined  to  be  defiant. 

"You  wouldn't  dare  to  tie  up  through  train  service,"  they  stormed.  "The  public 
wouldn't  stand  for  it." 

"I'll  take  the  chance  on  that,"  answered  Mayor  Speer,  a  steely  glitter  showing  in  his 
eyes.  "That  ordinance  will  be  enforced  unless  you  gentlemen  agree  to  construct  that  viaduct 
and  stop  the  menace  to  the  lives  of  Denver  citizens."  His  jaw  was  set  firmly;  determination 
shone  from  every  feature  of  his  face  and,  to  clinch  the  matter,  he  raised  a  heavy  fist  and 
brought  it  down  with  a  bang  on  the  table. 

"Now  you  have  it,  plunk!"  he  declared,  with  the  words  and  gesture  that  had  become 
famous  among  his  associates. 

The  upshot  of  the  matter  was  that  an  agreement  was  signed  between  the  city  officials 
and  the  railroad  presidents  on  August  2,  1908.  More  than  three  years  later,  on  December 
20,  1911,  the  city  accepted  and  opened  the  viaduct.  The  total  cost  was  3613,578.53,  of 
which  the  city's  share  was  366,730.  The  following  railroads  put  up  the  remainder  of  the 
cost:  Union  Pacific,  3166,241.88;  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy,  3174,991.46;  Colorado 
&  Southern,  3168,976.12;  Denver,  Northwestern  &  Pacific,  336,636.84. 

There  is  a  marked  contrast  between  the  results  obtained  by  the  city  in  connection  with 
this  improvement,  and  those  obtained  in  connection  with  the  Colfax-Larimer  Viaduct  by 
the  succeeding  administration,  that  of  Henry  J.  Arnold,  who  went  into  office  as  a  reform 
mayor  on  the  largest  vote  ever  given  a  chief  executive  of  Denver. 

Mayor  Speer  had  opened  negotiations  for  construction  of  this  viaduct  across  the  South 
Platte  River  before  he  left  office.  He  had  them  advanced  to  a  very  favorable  point  from 
the  city's  standpoint  when  his  term  expired.  The  Arnold  administration  resumed  nego- 
tiations but,  being  in  a  hurry  to  get  the  work  started,  unfortunately  let  this  fact  become 
known.  Quite  naturally  the  railroad  officials  concerned  displayed  no  desire  to  come  to  an 
agreement.  The  people  of  Denver  had  been  accustomed  to  an  administration  at  City  Hall 
that  accomplished  results,  so  the  Arnold  administration  felt  that  it  must  make  an  early 
beginning  lest  unfavorable  criticism  be  aroused.  An  agreement  was  made  by  which  the 
city  was  to  bear  30.6  per  cent,  of  the  cost,  the  railroads  and  the  Denver  Tramway  Company 
the  remainder.  The  Tramway  Company,  however,  made  an  offer  to  pay  a  flat  price  and 
no  more,  and  this  offer  was,  unwisely  for  the  city,  accepted.  A  bond  proposition  was 
submitted  for  3260,000  to  pay  the  city's  share  of  construction,  and  the  people,  as  yet  with 
full  confidence  in  the  new  administration,  voted  the  issue.  The  State  of  Colorado,  through 
the  legislature  of  1911,  added  another  350,000. 

The  cost  greatly  exceeded  the  estimates  and  the  city  was  forced  to  make  up  the  short- 
age that  resulted  after  the  Tramway  Company  had  paid  out  its  share.  The  ultimate  result 
was  that  the  viaduct  cost  3950,913.48,  of  which  the  city  paid  3381,866.52,  less  the  350,000 
contributed  by  the  state.  But  this  was  the  least  unfortunate  feature  of  the  affair.  In 
order  to  secure  the  co-operation  of  the  railroads,  the  city  council  and  mayor  ceded  to  the 
roads  two  miles  of  city  streets  and  alleys  beneath  and  around  the  viaduct,  valued  by  the 
assessor  as  worth  3500,000  at  a  conservative  estimate. 

Another  instance  of  Mayor  Speer's  ability  to  secure  results  favorable  to  the  city  from 
corporate  interests  occurred  in  connection  with  the  construction  of  the  West  Alameda 
Avenue  subway.  The  object  of  this  improvement  was  to  eliminate  a  number  of  dangerous 
grade  crossings  and  to  furnish  to  the  residents  of  Valverde  and  Southwest  Denver  easy 
communication  with  the  central  portion  of  the  city  by  roadway  and  street  car.  The  total 
cost  of  this  1,256-foot  subway  was  3245,216.53,  of  which  the  city  paid  one-third,  the  Tram- 
way Company  one-third  and  the  railroads  the  remainder.  The  Tramway  Company  used 

27 


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28 


A  CITY  BUILDER 

one  side  of  the  subway  for  street  car  tracks  and  extended  its  line  to  Valverde.  Three  steel 
bridges  of  the  girder  type  were  used  to  carry  the  eleven  tracks  of  the  railroad  companies 
across  the  subway.  As  part  of  this  same  general  scheme  two  steel  bridges  were  built, 
one  across  the  old  water  company  canal  and  one  across  the  South  Platte.  The  cost  of  the 
two,  $36,000,  was  divided  half-and-half  between  the  city  and  the  Tramway  Company. 

A  safety  measure  of  considerable  importance  to  West  Denver  residents  was  accom- 
plished in  1910,  when  the  Mullen  ditch,  used  for  mill  power,  was  closed.  Again  Mayor 
Speer  divided  the  cost  for  the  city  with  the  railroads,  each  paying  $20,000  for  this  purpose. 

The  Art  Commission,  created  in  the  Charter  of  1904,  actively  assisted  Mayor  Speer 
in  carrying  out  the  details  of  a  comprehensive  city  plan.  With  the  able  help  of  this  body 
Denver  became  one  of  the  best  lighted  cities  in  the  world.  So  pronounced  was  the  success 
in  this  respect  that  it  gained  the  title  "The  City  of  Lights."  Especially  attractive  was 
the  ornamental  lighting  system.  Ornamental  light  poles,  holding  pearl  globes,  were  in- 
stalled on  Fifteenth,  Sixteenth  and  Eighteenth  streets,  during  Mayor  Speer's  first  two 
terms,  and  the  system  was  greatly  extended  during  his  third  term.  The  first  step  was  to 
abolish  all  overhead  wires  except  those  of  the  Tramway  Company.  Telephone,  telegraph 
and  signal  service  companies  were  compelled  to  lay  their  wires  in  underground  conduits. 
Through  an  agreement  with  the  Tramway  Company  the  new  iron  trolley  poles  on  Sixteenth 
street  were  sheathed  in  cast  iron  casings,  and  ornamental  brackets  with  globe  attachments 
were  fastened  to  these.  Speer  Boulevard  wires  also  were  laid  underground.  The  Art 
Commission  again  rendered  the  city  a  notable  service  in  1908  when  plans  were  announced 
for  the  erection  of  several  sky-scrapers  of  fifteen  to  sixteen  stories.  A  letter  of  protest  was 
sent  to  the  Mayor  by  its  president,  Henry  Read,  and  the  former  promptly  supported  him 
in  order  that  the  city  might  develop  in  a  uniform  manner.  All  buildings  were  limited  to 
twelve  stories,  the  only  exception  being  the  slender  campanile  of  the  D.  &  F.  tower,  which 
is  interesting  as  an  architectural  feature. 

While  immersed  in  these  prodigious  undertakings  Mayor  Speer  found  time  in  1911  to 
make  his  first  trip  to  Europe.  He  was  impelled  to  do  so  because  of  a  rare  opportunity 
presented  for  study  of  European  municipal  government.  The  Boston  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce resolved  to  send  a  selected  party  of  American  mayors  and  distinguished  municipal 
students  to  Europe  for  the  purpose  of  investigating  municipal  conditions  there,  with  the 
idea  that  much  of  value  to  American  cities  would  be  brought  back  to  this  country.  It  was 
a  lofty  and  patriotic  conception  and  one  that,  in  the  case  of  Denver,  resulted  in  definite, 
beneficial  results. 

Mayor  Speer  was  one  of  the  mayors  invited  to  make  the  trip.  He  sailed  from  this 
country  with  Mrs.  Speer  on  June  17th,  1911.  Soon  after  joining  the  party  he  was  named 
chairman  of  the  committee  on  "How  Foreign  Cities  are  Governed. "  This  was  a  recognition 
of  his  accomplishments  in  Denver,  by  that  time  known  throughout  the  country. 

There  are  many  interesting  stories  about  Mayor  Speer  in  connection  with  that  trip. 
He  went  as  a  student,  with  the  intention  of  profiting  by  travel.  Consequently  he  avoided 
banquets,  speech-making  and  the  showy  side  of  the  trip,  and  spent  his  time  interviewing 
European  city  officials,  inspecting  public  works,  especially  their  civic  centers,  for  he  hoped 
to  secure  ideas  that  would  be  of  assistance  in  building  the  civic  center  at  home.  At  Dus- 
seldorf,  Germany,  his  absence  from  the  party  became  so  noticeable  that  it  attracted  more 
than  the  usual  amount  of  attention.  Members  of  the  party  soon  learned  that  if  Mayor 
Speer  was  wanted  in  a  hurry  the  quickest  way  to  find  him  was  to  send  a  messenger  to  the 
beautiful  children's  fountain  there.  If  the  Denver  mayor  was  not  then  standing  in  rapt 
attention  before  that  appealing  interpretation  of  childish  innocence  and  purity,  he  was 
sure  to  appear  within  the  course  of  half  an  hour.  Childhood,  it  has  been  noted,  held  an 

29 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

irresistible  charm  for  him,  and  this  group  of  M.  Blondat,  the  gifted  Frenchman,  haunted 
his  imagination.  Before  he  left  Germany  he  secured  permission  to  have  a  duplicate  carved 
from  marble  by  the  sculptor,  and  this  is  the  Children's  Fountain  that  stands  on  the  south 
shore  of  the  large  lake  in  City  Park.  Three  children,  seated  upon  an  overhanging  rock, 
look  down  with  laughter  and  childish  wonder  upon  a  group  of  three  bronze  frogs,  huddled 
together  upon  the  edge  of  a  limpid  pool,  while,  from  their  mouths  tiny  jets  of  water  spring 
upward  toward  the  children.  The  Blondat  group  stood  on  the  line  between  strictly  archi- 
tectural improvement  and  the  introduction  of  decorative  sculpture,  and  exerted  a  decided 
influence  upon  the  artistic  development  of  the  city. 

Mayor  Speer  returned  from  Europe  on  August  26th  of  the  same  year — 1911. 
The  trip  had  had  a.  wonderfully  broadening  effect  upon  him.  He  saw  city  problems  in  a 
new  light,  and  came  back  better  fitted  than  ever  to  govern  Denver.  However,  the  full 
benefits  of  the  travel  did  not  appear  then.  A  movement  had  been  started  to  secure  a  new 
administration  at  City  Hall.  Politics  occupied  much  of  his  time.  A  few  works  already 
started  were  finished,  but  nothing  new  was  taken  up  except  the  proposition  to  secure  a  pipe 
organ  for  the  auditorium.  For  this  purpose  he  appropriated  $50,000,  and  signed  a  contract 
with  a  leading  organ  manufacturer.  This  contract  later  was  cancelled  by  his  successor  and 
the  money  diverted  to  other  purposes.  The  Sopris  gateway  to  City  Park,  presented  by 
S.  T.  Sopris  in  honor  of  his  father,  Richard  Sopris,  an  early  mayor  of  Denver,  was  com- 
pleted. The  esplanade  entrance  to  the  City  Park,  which  formed  the  setting  for  two  of 
the  most  notable  park  improvements  of  his  third  term,  was  finished. 

The  European  trip,  as  was  to  become  apparent  at  a  later  date,  changed  Mayor  Speer 
from  a  strong  partisan  to  a  non-partisan  in  city  government.  No  one  ever  again  heard 
him  say  that  he  believed  in  a  partisan  government  for  municipalities.  The  journey  had 
grounded  in  his  mind  some  ideas  which  conservative  business  acquaintances  classed  as 
socialistic.  He  had  begun  to  think,  not  alone  of  entertainment  for  the  masses,  but  of  a 
method  by  which  their  sufferings  might  be  alleviated,  and  better  living  conditions  brought 
to  their  hearths.  How  this  idea  of  social  service  was  worked  out  with  characteristic  Speer- 
ian  individuality,  a  later  chapter  will  show.  It  is  enough  at  this  point  to  say  that  the 
City  of  Denver  suffered  a  shocking  and  irretrievable  loss  in  his  premature  death,  just  as 
he  had  entered  upon  an  era  of  constructive  development  in  which  his  great  craving  was, 
not  to  gratify  the  soul  of  the  artist,  but  to  satisfy  the  instinct  to  serve  his  fellow  man,  an 
impulse  always  present  in  his  nature,  as  manifested  by  his  many  labors  to  give  pleasure 
and  entertainment  to  his  fellow  citizens.  In  his  first  two  terms  the  flower  of  his  genius 
was  but  half  opened ;  in  the  last  Denver  received  a  brief  but  dazzling  view  of  it  in  full  bloom. 


30 


Cherry  Creek  Was  Incorrigible  Until  It  relt  the  Builder  s  Hand. 


•  .,-" 

Many  Administrations  Had  Vainly  Tried  to  Solve  the  Problem. 


31 


The  Municipal  Organ  Will  Ever  Testify  to  the  Indoi 

Miss  Margaret  Wilson  Sinj 


32 


ible  Will  and  Persistence  of  Denver's  Great  Mayor, 
at  the  Organ  Dedication. 


33 


Cherry  Creek  Subjected — A  Before-and-After  Contrast. 


City  Hall  Sat  in  Squalid  Dejection  Upon  Its  Ruining  Banks. 


34 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Mayor  Speeds  Outstanding  Works  —  The  Auditorium  His  Favorite 
Creation — An  Unparalleled  Entertainment  Program  —  Love  of  Chil- 
dren Emphasized — Installation  of  the  Organ — Cherry  Creek  and  Speer 
Boulevard — The  Sunken  Gardens — History  of  the  Civic  Center  Project— 
A  Period  of  Stagnation — Construction  Commenced  With  the  Return  of 
Speer —  The  Colonnade  of  Civic  Benefactors,  Built  Without  Taxation. 


I 


GREAT,  material  achievements,  any  one  of  which  was  sufficient  to  have 
brought  imperishable  fame  to  its  author,  marked  the  administrations  of  Mayor 
Speer.  The  first  of  these  was  the  construction  of  the  municipal  auditorium. 
The  second  was  the  transformation  of  Cherry  Creek  from  a  public  dumping 
ground  into  the  handsomest  boulevard  in  the  city.  The  third  was  the  acquisition  and 
definition  of  the  civic  center. 

These  works  deserve  a  special  chapter  because  each  was  typical  of  its  creator;  each  is 
a  living  example  of  the  manner  in  which  his  mind  conceived  and  his  will  executed  his 
visions.  In  their  progress  toward  maturity  one  can  follow  the  purpose  of  the  builder; 
first  the  idea,  vague  and  unformed.  It  might  be  foreshadowed  in  a  single  sentence,  to 
all  appearance  uttered  carelessly  and  without  definite  purpose.  Months  would  elapse  with 
an  occasional  mention  of  the  subject  to  a  friend.  Others  passed  it  by  or  speedily  let  it 
glide  from  their  memories,  but  it  grew  day  by  day,  week  by  week,  month  by  month,  in  the 
brain  of  the  author.  Mayor  Speer  would  ponder  for  months  over  his  plans,  turning  them 
over  and  over,  dissecting  them,  analyzing  them,  constructing  them  anew,  until  at  last  he 
came  forward  with  the  plan  complete,  dazzling  in  its  imaginative  content,  yet  practicable 
and  workable  to  the  last  detail.  The  hearer  might  consider  it  visionary  until  he  undertook 
to  pick  flaws  in  the  scheme.  To  every  question  propounded,  Mayor  Speer  had  a  definite 
answer;  to  every  objection  a  well-digested  argument.  This  was  the  secret  of  his  success 
in  small  things  as  well  as  great.  He  never  submitted  a  proposition  for  final  judgment, 
whether  to  the  voters  or  to  an  organization  or  committee,  that  was  not  well-nigh  unassail- 
able. He  might  invite  suggestion  and  criticism  from  individuals  in  order  to  stimulate  his 
conception;  he  might,  and  often  did,  abandon  half-formed  ideas  when  a  basic  flaw  was 
pointed  out;  but  when  his  plans  had  matured  to  his  satisfaction  he  was  adamant  in  his 
opinions.  It  is  a  tribute  to  his  mental  stature  that  Mayor  Speer  did  not  confine  himself 
to  a  few  in  thus  testing  the  mettle  of  his  ideas.  They  first  had  to  run  the  gauntlet  at 
home,  for  he  depended  to  a  very  large  extent  upon  the  calm,  dispassionate,  well-balanced 
judgments  of  Mrs.  Speer,  who,  although  she  never  took  part  publicly  in  any  city  affairs, 
exercised  a  powerful  influence  in  their  decision.  The  mayor's  closest  political  advisers;  a 
prominent  business  man  who  happened  to  drop  in  upon  him;  a  newspaper  reporter  calling 
for  the  morning's  news;  the  members  of  his  official  family,  were  drawn  out  unconsciously 
by  some  chance  remark  dropped  during  a  conversation.  The  visitor  might  think  that  his 
comment  was  of  little  moment  to  the  big  man  in  the  swivel  chair,  but  the  Mayor  listened 
eagerly  for  every  word,  weighed  it  carefully  and  stored  it  away  for  future  reflection.  After 
passing  through  such  a  crucible  it  is  small  wonder  that  his  ideas,  when  ready  for  assay  by 
the  voters,  stood  the  acid  test. 

The  first  great  material  improvement  was  designed  to  meet  the  social  needs  of  the 
community.  At  the  same  time,  under  Mayor  Speer's  direction,  the  auditorium  served 
as  a  medium  for  bringing  to  the  masses  a  higher  culture. 

35 


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36 


37 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

The  auditorium  was  the  first  of  the  thfee  to  be  brought  to  a  successful  conclusion. 
In  order  to  clear  the  decks  for  the  erection  of  the  auditorium,  Mayor  Speer  was  forced  to 
pass  through  another  of  those  bitter  legal  battles  which  marked  almost  every  step  of  his 
official  career.  The  city's  power  to  provide  by  charter  for  the  erection  of  an  auditorium, 
to  purchase  a  site  therefor  and  to  issue  bonds  to  discharge  the  indebtedness  created 
thereby,  was  described  in  the  case  of  Denver  vs.  Hallett,  34  Colorado,  393,  a  case  that  has 
since  become  the  leading  reference  throughout  the  country  in  actions  at  law  based  upon 
similar  circumstances.  City  Attorney  Lindsley  in  this  instance  referred  to  the  ancient 
English  custom  of  holding  court  under  the  trees  and  the  subsequent  necessity  of  erecting 
public  buildings  with  popular  funds,  for  the  convenience  of  the  people. 

The  people  voted  $400,000  in  bonds  for  construction  of  the  auditorium  on  May  17, 
1904,  and  the  issue  was  made  July  2,  of  the  same  year.  Plans  were  drawn  by  Robert 
Willison,  then  city  building  inspector,  and  it  was  opened  in  July,  1908,  by  the  Democratic 
National  Convention.  The  building  was  constructed  with  the  purpose  of  meeting  every 
requirement,  and  in  this  it  has  been  an  admirable  success.  In  four  hours  it  may  be  changed 
from  one  large  room,  246  feet  long  by  145  feet  wide,  seating  12,000  people,  into  a  theatre, 
seating  3,300  people,  with  a  hippodrome  stage.  The  total  cost  of  the  auditorium  was 
$650,000,  the  excess  having  been  made  up  from  general  funds. 

The  auditorium  was  the  favorite  child  of  Mayor  Speer's  brain.  He  never  tired  of 
devising  new  form  of  entertainment  for  the  people,  for  the  most  part  free  entertainments. 
Nothing  short  of  illness  or  absence  from  the  city  could  keep  him  away  from  the  Sunday 
musical  concerts,  and  his  face,  wreathed  in  smiles,  was  as  familiar  to  patrons  of  these 
concerts  as  the  building  itself. 

The  first  municipal  theatre  in  America  was  conducted  there  during  the  winter  seasons 
of  1909-1910  and  1910-1911,  twenty  engagements  being  played  each  winter  under  direction 
of  the  Shuberts.  Prices  were  limited  by  the  city  from  twenty-five  cents  to  one  dollar. 

To  give  an  idea  of  the  multitudinous  uses  made  of  the  auditorium,  it  may  be  stated 
that  in  it  have  been  held  athletic  carnivals,  playground  festivals,  municipal  dances,  wrest- 
ling matches,  a  three-ring  circus,  dog  and  poultry  shows,  a  horse  show,  revival  meetings, 
lectures,  dramatic  and  grand  opera  productions,  concerts,  mask  and  charity  balls,  industrial 
expositions,  pure  food  and  automobile  shows,  flower  shows,  lodge  initiations  and  military 
maneuvers,  society  and  Elk  fairs,  Boy  Scout  exhibitions,  apple  shows,  surgical  operations, 
election  returns  and  returns  from  world's  series  baseball  games,  Christmas  tree  celebra- 
tions, not  to  mention  the  winter  band  concerts,  organ  concerts,  daily  summer  organ  recitals, 
and  moving  picture  shows. 

Free  band  concerts  by  the  Denver  Municipal  Band,  organized  by  Mayor  Speer  and 
maintained  by  the  city,  were  held  during  the  winter  seasons  each  Sunday,  and  lasted 
until  the  installation  of  the  great  organ  during  his  last  term.  In  1911  Mayor  Speer  broke 
another  precedent  by  giving  motion  picture  shows  in  connection  with  the  band  concerts, 
of  which  there  were  two  each  Sunday.  Motion  picture  men  opposed  the  plan,  but  when 
they  found  that  the  shows  were  to  be  limited  to  educational  or  travel  pictures  they  withdrew 
their  protests.  Instead  of  hurting  private  business  these  shows  stimulated  patronage  for 
them. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  undertakings  was  the  presentation  of  a  horse  show.  As 
the  trunks  of  a  theatrical  company  were  trundled  from  the  building,  one  evening  after  the 
close  of  an  engagement,  the  wide  street  doors  in  the  rear  of  the  stage  were  thrown  open, 
and  one  hundred  and  fifty  contractors'  wagons  were  driven  upon  the  hippodrome  stage. 
In  a  few  hours  one  thousand  cubic  yards  of  clay  had  been  dumped  upon  the  concrete  floor. 
The  wagons  disappeared,  to  reappear  a  few  hours  later,  loaded  with  green  tan  bark.  The 

38 


Children's  Fountain,  City  Park,  a  Result  of  the  European  Trip. 


39 


Mayor  Speer's  Last  Great  Vision  Was  the  Mount  Evans  Drive. 


40 


A  CITY   BUILDER 

auditorium  crew  worked  all  night  and  the  following  day,  and  when  the  horse  show  opened 
in  the  evening  arrangements  were  perfect  to  the  last  detail. 

The  moving  picture  presentations  were  distinctly  Speerian.  The  Mayor  was  a  firm 
believer  in  spectacular  effects.  In  a  room  behind  the  picture  screen  he  had  stationed  a 
crew  of  stage  hands,  equipped  with  noise  effects  to  furnish  realism.  On  one  occasion  a 
battle  scene  was  presented  and  a  battery  from  the  Colorado  National  Guard,  located  in 
this  room,  fired  cannon  continuously  during  the  performance.  The  roar  of  the  gatlings 
was  deafening,  the  flashes  of  rifles  were  visible  through  the  screen,  and  powder  smoke, 
drifting  out  over  the  audience,  thrilled  the  spectators  with  the  realism  of  war. 

Not  the  least  interesting  of  the  entertainments  was  the  free  concert  given  by  Madame 
Schumann-Heink  on  January  24,  1912,  as  the  result  of  her  attendance  at  a  municipal 
band  concert  the  previous  Sunday.  The  prima  donna  had  come  to  the  city  to  keep  a 
concert  engagement.  The  night  following  her  contract  engagement  she  appeared  at  the 
request  of  Mayor  Speer  and,  although  notice  was  given  only  on  the  day  of  the  free  concert, 
fourteen  thousand  people  crowded  into  the  building  to  hear  her,  while  between  twenty  and 
twenty-five  thousand  were  unable  to  gain  admission. 

It  was  the  policy  of  Mayor  Speer  to  reserve  boxes  for  the  aged,  mothers  with  children, 
and  for  cripples,  at  all  free  celebrations.  He  was  in  evidence  on  each  of  these  occasions, 
kept  a  sharp  lookout  for  persons  of  this  description,  and  personally  ushered  them  to 
boxes.  Many  entertaining  anecdotes  are  told  by  the  auditorium  attendants  to  illustrate 
the  fondness  of  the  Mayor  for  children.  After  one  particularly  successful  Christmas  tree 
celebration,  held  in  1917,  when  ten  thousand  boxes  of  candy  were  given  away  to  the  chil- 
dren, an  attendant  found  him  standing  at  a  side  entrance,  surrounded  by  a  group  of  grimy, 
tearful  boys.  They  had  been  unable  to  secure  admission  and  were  bewailing  the  fact  that 
they  had  received  no  candy. 

"Well,  never  mind,"  said  the  big-hearted  Mayor,  "you  go  get  some  candy  at  the 
store,"  and  he  passed  a  dollar  to  each  of  the  youngsters. 

During  another  Christmas  celebration  the  building  manager  caught  him  on  several 
different  occasions,  opening  side  doors  to  let  in  a  few  more  children.  As  all  doors  had  been 
closed  some  time  before,  on  order  of  the  Mayor  himself,  the  manager  remonstrated  some- 
what after  this  fashion: 

"Boss,  you  positively  must  not  let  anyone  else  in.  You  gave  me  my  orders,  but  you 
are  violating  them  yourself.  It  is  dangerous  to  admit  anyone  else." 

"Oh,  these  are  only  a  few  little  boys,  George,"  was  the  reply.  "They  want  to  see 
the  Christmas  tree,  too,  and  they  won't  take  up  much  room." 

Mayor  Speer  never  regarded  the  auditorium  as  completed  until  the  municipal  organ 
had  been  installed.  The  idea  was  first  broached  by  him  during  1911,  and  his  final  budget 
for  the  second  term  carried  an  appropriation  of  $50,000  for  the  purpose  of  buying  and 
installing  the  instrument.  After  the  expiration  of  his  term  the  spirit  to  undo  all  that  Speer 
had  done,  so  frequently  manifested  by  successors  of  public  officials  who  have  made  great 
records,  caused  the  revocation  of  this  contract.  Upon  the  re-election  of  Mayor  Speer,  in 
1916,  he  immediately  undertook  to  secure  the  organ.  There  were  no  available  funds  for 
the  purpose  at  that  time,  so  he  appealed  to  public  patriotism,  as  he  had  often  done 
before.  R.  W.  Speer  rarely  called  upon  the  people  of  Denver  in  this  way  without  securing 
what  he  wanted,  so  great  was  their  confidence  in  his  judgment.  The  Mayor  personally 
raised  $20,000  and  then  asked  the  Denver  Rotary  Club  to  complete  the  fund.  As  a  rotarian 
he  went  forth  again  and  was  materially  responsible  in  securing  the  remainder  of  the  money. 
While  the  organ  was  in  course  of  construction  he  ordered  the  redecoration  of  the  entire 
auditorium  and  perfection  of  its  acoustical  properties,  at  a  cost  of  $26,000,  employing  a 

41 


ROBERT  W.   S^PEER 

technical  engineer  for  this  purpose.  This  was  a  positive  necessity  and  did  much  toward 
making  the  organ  the  success  that  it  has  proved. 

Instead  of  a  $50,000  organ,  the  people  of  Denver  found  themselves,  after  a  wait  of 
four  years  from  the  time  of  its  first  suggestion,  possessed  of  an  $85,000  instrument.  The 
Mayor  engaged  as  organist  a  man  of  national  reputation,  and  on  March  21  and  22, 
1918,  the  mighty  instrument,  greatest  in  volume  and  tone  quality  of  its  kind,  was  dedi- 
cated by  Evan  Williams  and  Miss  Margaret  Wilson,  daughter  of  President  Wilson. 

Almost  the  last  plan  arranged  by  Mayor  Speer  before  his  death  was  the  presentation, 
the  following  winter,  by  first-class  concert  or  operatic  singers,  of  a  series  of  musical  con- 
certs at  popular  prices.  Ten  concerts  were  arranged,  and  season  tickets  sold  at  twenty- 
five  cents  per  concert.  The  Municipal  Artists  Series  is  just  closing  as  this  book  goes  to 
press.  Mayor  Speer  did  not  live  to  enjoy  them,  but  they  have  served  a  noble  purpose  in 
bringing  to  people  of  limited  means  a  brighter  and  sweeter  experience  in  life. 

While  construction  of  the  auditorium  has  been  placed  first  in  point  of  completion,  it 
was  really  the  Cherry  Creek  improvement  that  gave  citizens  confidence  in  the  judgment 
and  ability  of  Mayor  Speer.  Enough  of  this  work  was  accomplished  during  1907  and  1908 
to  give  the  people  an  idea  of  what  the  improvement  would  mean  to  the  city. 

Just  how  long  the  vision  of  a  walled  and  boulevarded  Cherry  Creek  lay  ripening  in 
the  brain  of  Mayor  Speer  it  is  difficult  to  say.  Ordinance  No.  86  of  the  series  of  1903 
defined  and  established  the  channel  of  Cherry  Creek.  Inasmuch  as  Mr.  Speer  was  presi- 
dent of  the  board  of  public  works  at  that  time,  and  Ordinance  No.  104  of  the  series  of 
1904  authorized  and  established  Cherry  Creek  Drive  on  the  northeasterly  line  of  Cherry 
Creek  from  the  south  line  of  West  Colfax  Avenue  to  the  west  line  of  Broadway,  it  must 
have  germinated  soon  after  he  became  president  of  the  board. 

Up  to  that  time  the  problem  of  confining  this  demon  stream  had  been  agitated  from 
the  date  of  the  first  great  flood,  May  19  and  20,  1864,  when  the  City  Hall  safe,  with  all 
city  records  and  property  deeds,  was  lost  in  the  quicksands.  The  early  settlers  of  Denver 
City  had  been  warned  by  the  Indians  of  the  treacherous  nature  of  the  seemingly  innocent 
creek.  Although  only  carrying  a  streamlet  a  few  inches  deep  most  of  the  year,  it  has 
flooded  thirteen  times  since  Denver  was  established,  five  of  the  floods  causing  considerable 
damage.  Millions  of  dollars  worth  of  property  have  been  swept  away  or  otherwise  de- 
stroyed, and  the  question  of  confining  the  creek  or  diverting  it  to  another  channel  was 
brought  before  the  city  authorities  every  few  years  after  the  date  of  the  first  flood.  No 
definite  conclusion  was  ever  reached,  however,  until  Mayor  Speer  took  office  in  1904. 

At  this  time  not  only  did  the  danger  to  property  exist  as  a  constant  menace,  but  the 
banks  of  the  stream  had  been  utilized  as  city  dumps.  They  were  the  repository  of  ashes, 
tin  cans,  rubbish,  manure  piles,  and  were  unsightly  and  unsanitary  to  an  alarming  degree. 

Ordinance  No.  104,  Series  of  1904,  was  followed  by  Ordinance  No.  41,  Series  of  1906, 
creating  a  special  assessment  district  for  construction  of  the  retaining  walls  and  drive. 
There  was  a  serious  fight  on  this,  as  there  was  on  every  big  improvement  ever  undertaken 
by  Mayor  Speer.  Political  antagonists  made  of  it  a  favorite  subject  of  attack.  Mayor 
Speer  was  accused  of  being  a  large  owner  of  lands  adjacent  to  the  creek,  and  the  assertion 
was  made  that  he  would  make  himself  independently  wealthy  if  the  project  went  through. 
In  the  face  of  this  opposition  he  put  through  the  city  council,  including  the  two  mentioned, 
twelve  ordinances  defining  and  establishing  the  Cherry  Creek  boulevards,  and  assessing 
adjoining  property  for  the  acquisition  of  land.  One  of  the  ordinances  was  repealed  by  the 
succeeding  administration,  but,  all  told,  $424,644.23  was  paid  for  land,  of  which  the  city 
and  county  paid  $181,387.25  and  property  owners  $243,256.98. 

42 


A   CITY   BUILDER 

The  great  constructive  work  on  the  Cherry  Creek  improvement  took  place  from  1907 
to  1911,  inclusive.  Up  to  December  31,  1913,  there  had  been  spent  on  Cherry  Creek 
improvements  $493,611.58,  of  which  $36,398.19  was  spent  during  1912  and  1913,  largely 
for  repairs  after  the  last  Cherry  Creek  flood,  due  to  wooden  piles  under  the  railroad  bridges 
below  Blake  Street.  Of  the  total  amount,  $198,930.03  was  raised  by  special  assessment, 
and  the  remainder,  with  the  exception  noted,  paid  out  from  various  operating  funds  of 
the  city.  This  represented  investment  in  permanent  improvements  from  general  funds. 

When  Mayor  Speer  went  out  of  office  in  1912,  Speer  Boulevard,  so  named  in  1910  by 
the  council  in  recognition  of  the  worth  of  the  plan,  had  been  constructed  and  parked  be- 
tween Blake  and  Downing  streets  on  the  northeasterly  side  of  the  creek.  The  name  Cherry 
Creek  Drive  was  given  the  portion  of  the  double  boulevard  lying  on  the  southwesterly 
bank,  which  had  been  graded  and  curbed  from  West  Eleventh  avenue  to  Broadway. 

This  great  work  speedily  became  recognized  as  the  most  beautiful  boulevard  in  Den- 
ver, and  so  stands  today.  During  construction  the  park  department  kept  pace  with  the 
highway  builders.  A  line  of  trees  was  planted  and  the  sloping  terraces  to  the  concrete 
creek  walls  were  improved  by  lawn  and  shrubbery.  Trailing  vines  dropped  over  the 
walls  and  hung  suspended  above  the  water.  The  ugly,  repulsive  stream  became  an  en- 
trancing spot  that  attracted  visitors  from  all  parts  of  the  country. 

When  the  land  was  acquired  for  Speer  Boulevard  and  the  Cherry  Creek  Drive,  several 
triangles  were  included  in  the  purchase.  One  of  these  tracts  lies  south  of  Eleventh  avenue, 
and  at  one  time  was  part  of  the  channel.  It  was  below  the  level  of  the  street  grade,  filled 
with  weeds  and  the  trash  that  one  finds  in  a  city  dump.  Mayor  Speer  ordered  that  a 
sunken  garden  be  designed  for  this  place,  and  the  park  and  highway  departments  performed 
the  labor  necessary  to  carry  out  the  scheme.  The  result  was  the  sunken  gardens  of  Cherry 
Creek,  regarded  by  many  citizens  as  the  most  beautiful  park  in  Denver.  The  park  con- 
sists of  a  formal  garden,  to  which  access  is  gained  by  steps  leading  downward  from  the 
drive.  A  pool  was  created  and  a  handsome  pavilion  built  on  its  west  side.  The  lighting 
system  employed  is  especially  attractive.  The  work  was  done  during  1910  and  1911. 

Mayor  Speer  planned  a  natural  park  south  of  the  formal  gardens  in  1912,  but  the 
work  was  interrupted  by  the  change  in  government.  He  carried  out  this  idea  in  1916, 
when  re-elected.  The  later  addition  is  as  beautiful  as  the  earlier  effort,  yet  absolutely 
a  different  style  of  landscape  architecture.  A  forest  effect  was  created,  many  evergreens 
having  been  used  to  carry  out  the  wild  aspect.  A  natural  rock  grotto,  which  sets  off  to 
splendid  advantage  a  miniature  waterfall,  lies  at  the  head  of  a  winding  streamlet,  the 
course  of  which  is  broken  by  tiny  pools,  surrounded  by  rocks. 

During  1917  Mayor  Speer  opened  the  drive  on  the  south  side  of  Cherry  Creek  from 
Broadway  to  Logan,  and  the  following  year  continued  it  to  Marion  street.  A  twenty-one 
foot,  surfaced  driveway  was  laid  out  and  bordered  on  either  side  by  a  forest  belt,  the  whole 
being  eighty  feet  in  width.  Hedges  of  lilacs  border  the  drive,  while,  beginning  at  the 
creek  wall,  a  bank  of  shrubbery  and  trees  covers  the  terrace.  One  section  of  this  drive 
is  planted  in  evergreens,  another  in  oak,  while  still  another  contains  a  variety  of  trees. 
Today  the  forest  belt  is  well  defined  and  forms  a  pleasure  drive  of  rare  beauty.  It  was 
ever  Mayor  Speer's  way  to  add  to  whatever  he  had  undertaken.  He  never  seemed  to 
run  out  of  ideas.  Years  after  the  citizens  thought  that  he  had  exhausted  the  possibilities 
of  an  improvement  he  would  complete  some  new  feature  that  immeasurably  increased 
the  worth  of  the  work.  It  was  so  both  in  the  Cherry  Creek  improvement  and  in  the  audi- 
torium. No  one,  after  this  achievement,  even  his  bitterest  enemies,  attempted  to  dispute 
the  genius  of  Mayor  Speer,  and  it  gained  him  that  faith  of  his  fellow  citizens  that  made 
possible  other  accomplishments,  each  as  gigantic  in  its  way  as  the  Cherry  Creek  work. 

43 


The  Colonnade  of  Civic  Benefactors  and  Open-Air  Theatre 


The  Transverse  Axis  of  the  Civic  Center  from  the  Colonnade. 


44 


Rear  View  of  the  Stage,  Colonnade  of  Civic  Benefactors. 


The  Cloistral  Promenade. 


Colonnade  and  the  Capitol. 


45 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

We  now  come  to  the  third  great  undertaking  by  Mayor  Speer  for  the  beautification 
of  Denver.  The  Civic  Center  project  had  its  inception  shortly  after  he  assumed  office 
as  chief  executive  in  1904,  yet  so  bitter  and  prolonged  was  the  fight  against  this  plan  by  a 
group  of  tax-paying  citizens  that,  at  the  close  of  his  second  term  in  1912,  the  land  alone 
had  been  acquired.  Public  improvements  on  the  scale  of  the  Civic  Center  invariably  have 
powerful  and  influential  opponents,  yet  it  is  doubtful  if  any  mayor  underwent  a  struggle 
more  prolonged  and  trying  to  the  soul  than  this.  It  required  all  his  wonderful  tenacity, 
all  his  great  tact  and  diplomacy,  all  of  his  indomitable  will  power,  to  bring  the  first  step 
to  a  successful  conclusion. 

The  Civic  Center  project  was  first  brought  to  public  attention  on  November  30,  1904, 
in  a  letter  addressed  to  Mayor  Speer  by  the  Art  Commission.  The  latter  body  recom- 
mended the  adoption  of  a  city  plan  long  before  that  subject  came  before  the  voters  of  other 
cities  of  this  country.  The  Mayor  instructed  the  commission  to  secure  the  services  of  a 
competent  expert  to  suggest  a  plan,  and  Charles  Mulford  Robinson  was  selected  for  this 
purpose.  On  January  19,  1906,  Mr.  Robinson's  proposition  was  presented  to  the  voters, 
but  was  defeated  because  of  the  expense  involved.  It  suggested  general  improvements, 
as  well  as  acquisition  of  several  blocks  of  land  lying  between  the  State  House  and  the 
Court  House  for  a  Civic  Center. 

The  matter  was  kept  before  the  public  by  the  Art  Commission.  Mayor  Speer,  after 
having  addressed  letters  to  the  leading  business  men  of  Denver,  urging  creation  of  a  Civic 
Center,  appointed  an  independent  committee  to  make  a  detailed  report.  Those  serving 
on  the  committee  were:  Charles  MacA.  Willcox,  chairman;  J.  K.  Mullen,  Chester  S. 
Morey,  David  H.  Moffat,  Jerome  S.  Riche,  J.  A.  Thatcher,  Frederick  J.  Chamberlin, 
Armour  C.  Anderson,  John  S.  Flower,  Jacob  Fillius,  Reinhard  Schuetze  and  Henry  Read. 
The  committee  unanimously  adopted  the  Civic  Center  suggestion  of  Mr.  Robinson  in  a 
report  to  the  Mayor  in  February,  1907. 

About  this  time,  Frederick  Macmonnies,  who  had  visited  Denver  to  make  a  study 
for  the  Pioneer  Monument,  suggested  a  Civic  Center  to  include  the  Bates  Triangle,  the 
property  between  Broadway  and  Bannock  as  far  south  as  Fourteenth  street,  as  well  as  a 
strip  south  of  this  large  enough  to  fulfill  the  conditions  of  a  cruciform  plaza. 

Inasmuch  as  all  lands  in  the  Civic  Center  proper  were  included  in  the  East  Denver 
Park  District,  it  was  agreed  that  the  expense  of  acquiring  the  land  should  be  borne  by  this 
district.  The  other  districts  had  paid  for  their  parks  through  special  assessment,  but  the 
East  Denver  district,  the  oldest  and  richest  in  the  city,  had  received  its  parks  by  gift  or 
by  payment  from  the  general  city  funds.  Included  in  this  district  was  the  City  Park, 
largest  and  best  developed  of  any  in  Denver,  as  well  as  the  beautiful  Cheesman  Park, 
with  its  superb  mountain  view  and  marble  pavilion. 

In  April,  1909,  the  Park  Commission  selected  the  land  to  be  acquired,  less  than  twenty- 
five  per  cent,  of  the  realty  holders  protesting.  These  objectors  took  the  matter  before 
the  state  and  federal  courts,  and  it  was  not  until  March  4,  1918,  that  the  Colorado  Supreme 
Court  disposed  of  the  final  litigation  to  make  the  entire  city  pay  for  the  Civic  Center. 

The  Civic  Center  proper  covers  approximately  thirteen  acres,  lying  west  of  the  State 
Capitol  building,  but,  in  addition  to  this,  the  following  land  purchases  were  included  in 
the  bond  issue:  Eighty-acre  addition  to  City  Park;  one  block  addition  to  Cheesman  Park; 
six  playgrounds;  five  triangles  for  small  parks;  and  land  for  opening  Park  avenue  to  Colfax, 
opening  and  widening  of  Forty-sixth  avenue  from  Colorado  Boulevard  to  the  Platte  River, 
York  street  to  the  northern  city  limits,  Thirty-second  Avenue  Boulevard  from  Steele 
street  to  Colorado  Boulevard,  Seventh  Avenue  Boulevard  from  High  street  to  Colorado 

46 


A   CITY   BUILDER 

Boulevard,  Marion  Street  Boulevard  and  Colorado  Boulevard  from  Cherry  Creek  to  the 
northern  city  limits. 

The  amount  appropriated  for  acquisition  of  the  Civic  Center  lands  proper  was  $1,814,- 
539.41.  The  bond  issue  of  $2,685,000  was  purchased  by  H.  L.  Doherty  &  Co.,  of  New 
York,  in  April,  1912. 

Mayor  Henry  J.  Arnold,  who  succeeded  Mayor  Speer  in  office,  immediately  began 
to  wreck  buildings  then  standing  on  the  Civic  Center,  from  which  the  city  was  deriving 
considerable  rent.  He  announced,  without  having  adopted  a  detailed  plan  of  construction, 
that  the  city  would  erect  four  buildings  to  correspond  in  size  and  architecture  with  the 
Public  Library,  one  to  become  an  administration  building,  one  a  court  building,  one  a 
treasury  building,  and  the  fourth  a  building  to  house  various  city  boards.  Under  this 
plan  the  present  Court  House  was  to  have  been  sold  and  the  present  City  Hall  converted 
into  fire  and  police  general  headquarters.  Fortunately,  from  an  artistic  standpoint,  the 
citizens  tired  of  the  Arnold  regime  before  a  year  had  elapsed.  Commission  form  was 
adopted  and  the  danger  from  this  particular  form  of  desecration  averted. 

The  destinies  of  the  Civic  Center  then  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Property.  Commissioner  Otto  F.  Thum  was  the  first  incumbent.  Although  city  clerk 
during  the  Arnold  administration,  he  was  wise  enough  to  see  that  the  purposes  of  the 
Center  would  be  destroyed  if  it  was  crowded  with  an  half-dozen  uniform  and  severely 
classical  buildings.  Commissioner  Thum  called  in  Frederick  Law  Olmsted  and  asked  for 
a  comprehensive  improvement  plan.  The  latter  submitted  such  a  plan,  differing  somewhat 
from  the  Macmonnies  plan,  but  holding  to  the  general  idea.  During  Commissioner  Thum's 
term  all  the  buildings  on  the  main  body  of  the  Center,  not  already  razed,  were  torn  down 
and  the  ground  planted  in  lawn.  In  this  form  it  remained  through  the  one-year  term  of 
Commissioner  of  Property  L.  C.  Greenlee,  the  efforts  of  three  administrations  having 
brought  the  Civic  Center  no  further  toward  completion  than  the  open  plaza  state. 

It  was  this  failure  to  solve  the  Civic  Center  problem  that  was  largely  instrumental 
in  inducing  Mayor  Speer  again  to  become  a  candidate  for  mayor  in  1916.  The  people,  too, 
had  tired  of  having  nothing  accomplished,  and  the  desire  to  see  the  master  builder  develop 
the  ideas  of  civic  beauty,  which  all  knew  he  had  formulated  before  he  left  office  in  1912, 
was  an  important  contributing  factor  in  his  re-election. 

The  public  did  not  have  long  to  wait.  One  of  Mayor  Speer's  first  acts  was  to  summon 
to  Denver  E.  H.  Bennett,  the  Chicago  landscape  architect,  with  instructions  to  evolve  a 
Civic  Center  plan  upon  which  all  could  agree.  The  present  plan,  with  the  exception  of 
the  Bates  Triangle  design  for  the  Voorhies  Memorial  entrance,  is  Mr.  Bennett's.  He 
recommended  a  transverse  axis  to  bisect  the  main  axis  at  right  angles.  The  splendid  and 
striking  scheme  for  the  construction  of  a  Colonnade  of  Civic  Benefactors  and  an  open-air 
theater,  however,  bears  the  unmistakable  imprint  of  the  Speer  mind.  It  was,  in  fact,  his 
idea,  the  fulfillment  of  a  plan  that  was  foreshadowed  in  an  address  delivered  by  Mayor 
Speer  at  the  banquet  in  honor  of  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, May  24,  1909.  His  words  then  have  a  familiar  ring,  which  will  be  recognized  in  his 
later  speeches,  and  illustrate  again  that  persistence  with  which  he  clung  to  his  opinions. 

"At  best,  life  is  short,"  he  said.  "We  want  the  good  opinion  of  our  fellowmen  while 
here,  and  to  be  kindly  remembered  after  we  have  passed  on.  I  know  of  no  better  way 
than  to  cultivate  and  unfold  some  blossoms  along  life's  path,  add  rest  stations,  play  sta- 
tions and  beauty  spots  along  the  way.  The  time  will  come  when  men  will  be  judged  more 
by  their  disbursements  than  by  their  accumulations.  Denver  has  been  kind  to  most  of 
us  by  giving  to  some  health,  to  some  wealth,  to  some  happiness,  and  to  some  a  combi- 
nation of  all.  We  can  pay  a  part  of  this  debt  by  making  our  city  more  attractive." 

47 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

Work  was  begun  within  a  few  months  on  the  Colonnade  of  Civic  Benefactors  and  the 
balustrades  of  the  Center.  Before  his  death  Mayor  Speer  said:  "I  want  to  finish  the 
Civic  Center  before  the  end  of  my  term.  The  people  look  to  me  to  do  it.  But,  at  least, 
I  have  got  it  so  far  denned  that  nobody  will  be  able  to  change  the  main  plan." 

To  encourage  the  spirit  of  public  giving,  he  planned  to  place  upon  the  colonnade  the 
names  of  those,  living  or  dead,  who  should  enrich  the  cultural  or  artistic  life  of  Denver 
by  some  substantial  gift,  the  names  to  be  selected  by  a  board  of  Denver  citizens. 

Mayor  Speer  expected  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  city  and  county  building,  facing 
the  State  Capitol  on  the  west,  all  improvement  of  the  Civic  Center  would  be  with- 
out taxation.  Payment  for  the  colonnade,  Greek  theater  and  balustrades  was  made  from 
a  special  fund,  created  from  the  annual  payment  of  the  Telephone  Company  for  use  of 
the  streets.  Mayor  Speer  secured  an  agreement  from  the  company  in  1912  that  it  should 
pay  the  city  two  per  cent,  of  its  gross  income.  Special  provision  was  made  that  this  pay- 
ment should  not  be  considered  as  having  prejudiced  the  rights  of  the  city  in  the  matter  of 
a  franchise  settlement,  for  the  company  was  then  operating  and  has  continued  since  to 
operate  without  any  franchise.  The  first  payment  was  made,  but  the  succeeding  admin- 
istration refused  to  accept  it.  The  money  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  city  for  four  years, 
every  administration  showing  itself  incapable  either  of  accepting  or  refunding  the  money. 
The  company  made  no  further  payment  until  1916,  when  Mayor  Speer  revived  the  sub- 
ject. Officials  of  the  company  offered  to  start  the  payments  on  the  old  basis  that  year, 
but  Mayor  Speer  insisted  that  back  payments  for  two  years  should  be  made.  The  com- 
pany finally  agreed  to  do  so,  and  the  money  thus  derived  was  placed  in  a  special  Civic 
Center  fund.  The  cost  of  the  colonnade,  $185,000,  was  paid  from  this  fund. 

The  extraordinary  stimulative  effect  that  Mayor  Speer's  speech,  "Give  While  You 
Live,"  had  upon  wealthy  citizens  of  Denver,  in  which  he  announced  the  establishment  of 
a  Court  of  Civic  Benefactors,  will  be  detailed  in  a  later  chapter. 

The  Voorhies  entrance,  to  be  created  through  a  bequest  left  by  J.  H.  P.  Voorhies, 
a  Denver  pioneer,  will  be  completed  this  year.  Mayor  Speer  died  before  any  decision 
had  been  made  as  to  the  design,  but  his  ideas  had  been  expressed  before  this  occurred. 

The  broken  column,  emblematic  of  the  final  interruption  in  the  life  of  the  builder, 
actually  represented  the  end  of  Mayor  Speer's  work.  When  he  passed  away  the  columns 
of  the  colonnade  had  been  erected  to  half  their  destined  height. 


'•'- 1 


48 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  Failure  of  Mr.  Speer  as  a  Newspaper  Editor — The  Second  Trip 
Abroad — Political  Battles — The  Historic  Struggle  With  Senator  Pat- 
terson— Defeat  of  Mayor  Speer' s  Senatorial  Ambitions — The  Success 
of  Arnold  and  the  True  Version  of  the  "Crowbar  Incident" — Junking 
of  the  Speer  Machine — Failure  of  Mayor  Arnold  and  Commission  Form 

of  Government. 

A iv  MONTHS  before  the  conclusion  of  Mayor  Speer's  second  term  he  acquired 
control  of  the  Denver  Times,  one  of  the  city's  leading  dailies.  He  stepped 
from  office  to  assume  its  management,  and  here  we  have  to  record  the  only 
failure  he  ever  made  of  any  problem  he  attacked.  A  great  many  persons, 
among  them  trained  newspaper  editors,  believed  that  Mayor  Speer  would  prove  successful 
as  a  journalist.  Mayor  Speer  had  shown  repeatedly  that  he  was  capable  of  brilliant, 
unusual  ideas,  and  it  was  upon  this  known  fact  that  the  predictions  were  based.  But  the 
hand  of  the  potter  had  moulded  a  vessel,  and  the  fire  had  imparted  to  it  unyielding  form. 
.The  plastic  quality  of  the  clay  had  been  destroyed.  It  could  not  be  reshaped. 

Some  of  the  very  qualities  that  made  Mr.  Speer  great  as  a  mayor,  his  sometimes 
obstinate  will,  his  almost  fanatical  adherence  to  an  ideal,  his  inability  to  adapt  himself  to 
sudden  changes  in  viewpoint,  foredoomed  him  to  failure.  He  had  considerable  genius  as 
a  publicity  man,  but  lacked  editorial  training.  The  establishment  of  Municipal  Facts, 
first  issued  on  February  20,  1909,  was  a  product  of  the  publicity  agent.  He  wished  to 
present  the  facts  of  his  administrative  work  to  the  citizens;  to  instruct  the  public  upon 
the  intricacies  and  accomplishments  of  city  government;  to  win  over  friends  for  his  multi- 
farious plans.  He  relied  upon  others  to  do  the  editorial  work. 

Mayor  Speer  had  suffered  so  much  abuse  as  a  public  official  that  the  idea  of  criticizing 
his  successor  was  repugnant  to  him.  The  paper  lacked  the  pungent,  breezy  air  of  the 
successful  daily.  After  a  brief  experience  he  gave  up  the  editorial  ghost.  His  manner 
of  doing  so  was  characteristic.  In  a  brief  statement  he  announced  his  withdrawal  from 
the  newspaper  business,  and  acknowledged  that  he  was  not  fitted  for  the  work. 

Nearly  all  of  Mayor  Speer's  speeches  were  short,  pithy  and  epigrammatic.  He  be- 
lieved that  no  public  speech  should  require  more  than  five  minutes  for  delivery,  and  it  was 
only  when  he  had  some  message  of  vital  importance  to  convey  that  he  broke  this  rule 
himself.  His  proclamations  were  models  of  brevity.  His  secretaries  all  had  sad  experi- 
ences in  attempting  to  write  letters  or  messages  for  him.  The  Mayor  was  scrupulous 
in  answering  every  letter  that  came  into  his  office,  no  matter  from  whom  or  upon  what 
subject.  Sometimes,  when  rushed  for  time  he  would  ask  his  secretary  to  compose  a  public 
message.  His  secretary  for  the  first  eight  years  of  his  mayoralty  terms  was  Colonel  John 
S.  Irby,  a  clever  and  gifted  writer  and  newspaper  man.  The  latter  obtained  considerable 
amusement  in  retailing  accounts  of  the  fate  met  by  his  most  painstaking  efforts.  After 
spending  an  hour  or  two  on  a  production  of  perhaps  two  hundred  words,  in  order  that  it 
might  be  couched  in  perfect  diction,  yet  carry  the  requisite  "punch,"  he  would  submit 
the  composition  to  Mayor  Speer.  The  latter  would  glance  over  it,  and  then  exclaim: 
"No!  No!  It's  all  right  for  you  to  write  that  way,  but  that's  not  the  way  I  say  things. 
It  doesn't  sound  like  me  and  people  would  know  it  as  soon  as  they  read  this."  He  would 
then  tear  the  proffered  message  apart  and,  in  the  end,  produce  an  epigrammatic  gem,  dis- 

49 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

tinctly  Speerian  and,  as  his  would-be  imitator  was  always  ready  to  admit,  something 
better  than  his  own.  Every  secretary  who  ever  attempted  to  write  Speer  messages  had 
the  same  experience. 

Mayor  Speer  did  not  compose  easily.  When  he  had  something  to  write  he  would 
shut  himself  up,  allow  no  interruptions,  and  work  on  the  matter  in  hand  doggedly  until 
it  had  been  finished.  He  turned  the  sheet  of  paper  sideways  and  wrote  in  a  copper-plate 
hand,  vertically  to  the  plane  of  his  shoulders,  with  an  effort  that  was  sometimes  painful  to 
witness.  It  was  a  constant  annoyance  to  him  to  compose,  but  he  preferred  to  do  so,  even 
when  immersed  in  more  important  work,  rather  than  have  anything  go  out  from  him  to 
the  public  that  was  not  just  as  he  would  have  spoken. 

Soon  after  Mr.  Speer's  retirement  from  his  newspaper  activities,  he  and  Mrs.  Speer, 
in  company  with  a  small  party  of  friends,  started  upon  a  tour  of  the  world  that  lasted 
seven  months.  The  party  visited  the  Far  East,  Egypt  and  Europe.  Again  Mr.  Speer, 
although  ostensibly  a  tourist,  traveled  as  a  student.  The  government  of  the  various 
cities  that  he  visited  interested  him  far  more  than  the  suggestions  of  Baedeker;  the  manner 
in  which  people  lived,  and  were  happy  or  sorrowful,  was  of  more  moment  in  his  eyes  than 
the  dusty,  flat-nosed  gods  in  heathen  temples.  We  have  a  reflection  of  this  in  a  later  speech 
on  "Happiness,"  in  which  he  undertook  to  prove  that  happiness  is,  after  all,  a  condition 
of  the  mind.  This  speech  we  have  reproduced  in  the  Appendix. 

Years  spent  in  the  hardening  school  of  politics  had  given  him  a  certain  grim  finish, 
observable  when  he  was  annoyed  by  some  obstruction  to  his  plans,  or  when  work  he  had 
ordered  performed  was  done  in  a  perfunctory  manner.  During  his  first  and  second  terms 
he  was  a  man  whom  none  of  his  subordinates  cared  to  anger,  for  his  judgment  was  swift 
and  cold;  yet,  despite  this,  he  was  just.  He  was  by  nature  a  battler,  and  years  of  violent 
newspaper  attacks  had  increased  his  inclination  to  strike  back.  To  a  man  his  equal  in 
mentality  or  in  position,  he  was  a  relentless  foe,  but  when  dealing  with  one  beneath  him 
in  position  or  ability  he  was  inclined  to  forgive  and  forget  an  injury.  During  his  first  two 
terms  he  had  as  his  leading  opponent  Senator  T.  M.  Patterson,  owner  of  the  Rocky 
Mountain  News  and  Denver  Times.  Here  was  a  foeman  worthy  his  steel,  but  one  who 
did  not  scruple  to  maintain  a  vindictive  warfare.  Some  of  the  political  struggles  between 
the  two  are  historic. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  political  contests  of  his  career  took  place  in  Denver  at 
the  state  convention  of  1906.  During  all  his  administrations  as  mayor  there  was  a  division 
in  the  Democratic  party,  one  faction  following  him,  the  other  Senator  Patterson.  At  the 
time  mentioned,  Mayor  Speer  had  control  of  the  city  government,  but  Senator  Patterson 
had  secured  a  majority  in  the  state  convention.  There  were  contesting  delegations  from 
Denver  County  and,  after  the  most  bitter  imaginable  debate,  Senator  Patterson  accom- 
plished the  now  famous  "spewing  out"  coup,  by  which  the  Speer  delegation  was  denied 
admission  to  the  convention,  told  that  its  members  were  not  Democrats,  and  advised  to 
give  their  support  to  the  Republican  ticket.  Mayor  Speer  accepted  the  dictum. 

"Very  well,"  he  replied.  "We  are  good  Democrats  and  we  will  prove  this  by  obeying 
the  mandate  of  the  party  as  represented  by  the  ruling  of  this  convention.  We  will  do  just 
as  you  tell  us." 

In  token  of  their  proposed  course  the  Speer  followers  ordered  struck  off  thousands 
of  small  tin  "meat  axes,"  tipped  on  the  edges  with  red,  to  signify  that  they  had  dug  up 
the  hatchet.  They  went  forth  upon  the  warpath  so  successfully  that  the  Republican 
state  ticket,  headed  by  Henry  A.  Buchtel,  was  elected.  Two  years  later,  at  the  next 
Democratic  state  convention,  held  in  Pueblo,  contesting  delegations  again  went  forth  from 
Denver,  but  this  time  Robert  W.  Speer  was  victorious,  and  the  convention  "spewed  out" 

SO 


Sullivan  Memorial  Gate,  Esplanade  Entrance  to  City  Park. 


The  Esplanade  Before  the  Erection  of  the  Sullivan  Gate. 


51 


The  Electric  Fountain,  City  Park, 
One  of  His  Early  Works. 


The  Bucking  Broncho,  a  Late  Gift, 
Inspired  by  Mayor  Speer. 


"Wynken,  Blynken  and  Nod",  Ordered  Just  Before  the  Mayor's  Death. 


52 


A  CITY  BUILDER 

the  Patterson  followers  with  gusto.  The  complete  state  and  congressional  Democratic 
tickets  were  elected. 

Again  these  two  strong  antagonists  met  in  the  halls  of  the  state  legislature  during  the 
early  months  of  1911,  when  Mayor  Speer  became  a  candidate  for  United  States  Senator 
to  succeed  Charles  J.  Hughes,  who  had  died  in  office.  Every  Speer  supporter  wore  in  his 
buttonhole  as  a  sign  of  his  aggressive  partisanship  a  golden  spearhead  upon  which  was 
stamped  the  word  "Speer."  The  struggle  went  on  in  the  most  unrelenting  fashion  for 
four  months,  Mayor  Speer  failing  of  election  by  one  vote.  Senator  Patterson,  though  the 
mayor  of  Denver  was  the  strongest  man  before  the  legislature,  succeeded  in  forming  a  com- 
bination among  the  other  applicants  for  the  office  and,  by  a  miracle,  in  holding  them  solid 
until  the  last.  The  result  was  no  election  and  Colorado  had  only  one  representative  in 
the  United  States  Senate  for  two  years. 

In  the  spring  of  1912  Mayor  Speer  received  the  most  complete  and  apparently  final 
defeat  of  his  career.  He  was  not  a  candidate  for  re-election,  but  supported  for  mayor 
the  city  engineer,  John  B.  Hunter,  later  Commissioner  of  Improvements  under  com- 
mission form  of  government.  Opposed  to  the  latter  was  the  Republican  candidate,  Dewey 
C.  Bailey,  afterward  Manager  of  Safety  during  Mayor  Speer's  third  term,  and  Henry 
J.  Arnold,  the  reform  candidate.  The  latter  had  been  created  politically  by  Mayor  Speer. 

The  campaign  propaganda  was  aimed  at  the  very  thing  that  had  made  Denver  a  real 
city,  her  wonderful  advance  in  public  improvements.  His  enemies  used  the  argument  of 
high  taxes  to  encompass  the  defeat  of  the  Speer  candidate.  The  people  had  tired  of  the 
long  reign  of  Mayor  Speer  at  City  Hall  and  had  grown  restive.  But  the  straw  that  turned 
the  scale  was  one  of  those  queer  incidents  of  chance  that  often  inflame  an  entire  population. 

Assessor  Arnold  had  been  elected  to  office,  but  in  the  fall  of  1911  the  Colorado  Supreme 
Court  handed  down  its  decision  in  the  Cassidy  case,  which  definitely  consolidated  the  city 
and  county,  in  fact  as  well  as  in  theory.  This  ruling  terminated  Assessor  Arnold's  term 
of  office  and  gave  the  Mayor  power  to  appoint  an  assessor.  Arnold,  although  created 
politically  by  Mayor  Speer,  already  had  begun  to  deal  with  Senator  Patterson.  The 
Mayor  removed  Arnold  from  office  and  appointed  in  his  stead  Hiram  E.  Hilts.  On  the 
evening  that  this  appointment  was  sent  to  the  council  for  confirmation,  Mr.  Hilts,  having 
made  arrangements  with  one  of  the  district  judges  to  be  sworn  in  that  night,  went  to  the 
Court  House  with  several  friends  for  that  purpose.  One  of  the  city  councilmen  had 
telephoned  Assessor  Arnold  of  the  confirmation,  and  the  latter  also  went  to  the  Court 
House  in  order  that  he  might,  if  possible,  cause  Hilts  to  use  force  in  securing  possession  of 
the  office,  and  so  establish  grounds  for  a  legal  conflict.  Mr.  Hilts  had  taken  the  oath  of 
office  and  had  descended  to  the  first  floor  of  the  Court  House  when  one  of  the  janitors 
informed  him  that  the  Assessor  and  some  friends  had  arrived  and  barricaded  the  doors  to 
the  Assessor's  office.  Mr.  Hilts,  although  instructed  by  Mayor  Speer  under  no  circum- 
stances to  employ  any  force  to  secure  possession,  but,  on  the  contrary,  to  await  a  quo 
warranto  proceeding  on  the  following  morning,  re-entered  the  Court  House  elevator  and 
went  to  the  third  floor.  He  found  that  Arnold  had  piled  office  furniture  against  the  doors. 
The  upper  half  of  these  doors  were  of  glass  and  the  contending  parties  could  see  and  hear 
one  another  plainly.  In  the  excitement  of  the  moment  a  dispute  took  place,  and  the  Hilts 
party  forgot  discretion.  One  of  Hilts'  companions,  who  carried  in  his  hand  a  short,  rubber 
ferrule,  laid  it  against  the  glass,  pulled  back  one  end  and  snapped  it.  The  pane  fell  in 
with  a  crash.  This  man  reached  through  the  opening,  turned  the  key  in  the  lock,  walked 
in  and  said,  "Hello,  Henry." 

"Hello,  George,"  was  the  reply,  and  the  two  shook  hands.  Assessor  Arnold  then 
walked  out  with  his  friends.  This  incident  was  seized  upon  by  Senator  Patterson  as  excel- 

53 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

lent  political  material.  The  next  morning's  News  carried  a  sensational  story  to  the 
effect  that  Assessor  Arnold's  door  had  been  forced  with  a  crowbar.  Gunmen,  revolvers 
and  other  harrowing  details  were  thrown  in  to  make  a  hair-raising  story.  Assessor  Arnold 
was  martyrized.  Soon  afterward,  when  public  feeling  had  been  aroused  to  a  high  pitch, 
Senator  Patterson  called  a  mass  meeting,  to  be  held  on  the  State  House  grounds.  Ten 
thousand  attended  and  a  demonstration  against  Mayor  Speer  was  staged.  This  was 
spread  broadcast  over  the  country.  One  of  the  leading  American  periodicals  carried  a 
sensational  story  of  the  rebellion  of  Denver  citizens  against  their  Mayor,  written  by  George 
Creel,  then  editorial  writer  on  the  Rocky  Mountain  News,  later  chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Public  Information  in  Washington. 

The  result  of  this  campaign,  conducted  with  much  ingenuity  and  imaginative  ability, 
was  the  election  of  Henry  J.  Arnold  by  a  vote  of  40,000,  the  largest  ever  cast  for  a  mayoralty 
candidate  in  the  history  of  the  city.  Every  candidate  on  the  ticket,  from  mayor  to 
constable,  was  swept  in  on  the  tidal  wave. 

The  Speer  machine,  so  long  dominant  and  triumphant,  was  scrapped  as  junk.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  refer  to  succeeding  administrations  between  the  end  of  Mayor  Speer's 
second  term  and  the  beginning  of  his  third,  further  than  to  say  that  the  same  influences 
and  the  same  newspapers  that  had  supported  Arnold  brought  about  a  change  in  the  charter 
on  February  14,  1913,  that  created  commission  form  of  government,  and  elected  some  of 
the  commissioners  in  May,  1913.  The  ill-starred  reform  mayor  lasted  less  than  one  year. 
Two  terms  of  commission  government  followed,  but  this  form  proved  an  unfortunate 
experiment  in  Denver,  whatever  its  success  in  other  cities.  Practically  no  public  improve- 
ments of  note,  other  than  those  inaugurated  by  Mayor  Speer,  were  carried  to  completion 
by  these  various  administrations. 

When  the  people  began  to  tire  of  commission  government,  during  the  winter  of  1915- 
1916,  the  name  of  Mayor  Speer  was  brought  forward  prominently  again.  Business  inter- 
ests and  thousands  of  individuals  importuned  him  to  run  for  mayor.  He  consented  to  do 
so,  but  only  upon  a  charter  which  he  himself  should  draw,  and  which  would  name  him  as 
mayor.  He  was  induced  to  take  this  course  for  the  purpose  of  completing  work  started 
by  him,  but  interrupted  by  the  events  of  1912. 


54 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Personal  Traits  of  Mayor  Speer — His  Secret  Service — Illustrations  of 
His  Thoughtful  Kindness — The  Mayor  and  the  Ragged  Urchin — His 
Fondness  for  Flowers  and  Birds — The  Poplars  on  Speer  Boulevard — A 
Political  Machine  That  Remained  True  Under  an  Unprecedented  Strain 
— Analysis  of  the  Speer  Amendment — The  Vindication  of  Mayor  Speer. 

BEFORE  TAKING  UP  again  the  thread  of  Mayor  Speer's  official  life  it  will  not  come 
amiss  to  pause  for  a  while  and  to  consider  Speer — the  man. 
Many  a  man  or  woman,  no  matter  how  low  his  or  her  estate,  was  helped  by 
his  influence,  or,  if  need  be,  by  his  money,  who  never  knew  from  what  source  this 
assistance  came.     This  was  characteristic  of  him  throughout  his  life.     He  had  friends  in 
every  walk  of  life  and  every  section  of  the  city  who  were  devoted  to  him.     His  great 
influence  was  used  to  help  and  uplift,  rather  than  to  destroy  or  injure.     Mayor  Speer's 
method  of  securing  all  the  facts  about  anyone  who  needed  assistance,  or  about  details  of 
government,  was  thorough.     In  the  former  instance  he  sent  for  men  who  could  tell  him 
what  he  wanted  to  know.     In  the  latter  he  secured  his  most  valuable  and  reliable  informa- 
tion through  a  secret  service  of  his  own. 

During  his  first  two  administrations  he  constantly  had  a  trusted  individual  in  his 
employ,  who,  in  some  manner,  checked  up  the  work  of  the  various  departments.  This 
man  kept  away  from  City  Hall  except  when  on  an  investigating  trip.  On  one  occasion 
he  might  commit  a  misdemeanor,  go  through  the  city  jail,  the  police  court,  and  the  county 
jail,  but  after  a  few  days  in  prison  would  receive  a  pardon  from  the  Mayor.  He  was 
testing  the  efficiency  of  the  service.  At  another  time  he  might  appear  in  the  guise  of  a 
taxpayer,  seeking  knowledge,  or  a  complainant  registering  a  complaint  against  some  nui- 
sance, in  order  that  he  might  try  out  the  effectiveness  of  the  health  department  employees, 
the  inspection  officials  or  clerks.  Again  he  might  gain  admittance  to  the  county  hospital 
as  a  patient. 

Throughout  his  entire  life  Mayor  Speer  never  lost  the  buoyant  spirit  of  youth,  without 
which  no  man  ever  attains  real  greatness.  He  was  as  capable  of  enthusiasm  as  the  veriest 
boy.  A  little  incident  that  illustrates  this  admirably  occurred  during  his  second  term, 
while  he  and  Mrs.  Speer  were  traveling  in  the  private  car  of  a  prominent  railroad  official 
with  a  party  of  friends.  The  car  had  been  sidetracked  at  Ogden,  Utah,  and  all  of  the  party 
except  the  Mayor  and  his  wife  had  left  to  see  the  city  or  attend  to  business.  As  they  sat 
there  in  the  pleasant  sunshine  the  Mayor's  attention  was  attracted  to  a  ragged  urchin  who 
stood  upon  the  right-of-way  and  gazed  at  the  car  with  a  peculiar,  fixed  expression. 

"Kate,"  said  Mr.  Speer,  "do  you  see  that  boy?  I  know  what  he's  thinking.  I 
remember,  once,  when  I  was  a  boy,  the  private  car  of  the  president  of  the  Pennsylvania 
railroad  came  into  the  yards.  I  stood  and  looked  at  it  for  hours,  hoping  that  somebody 
would  ask  me  to  come  in  and  see  it — but  no  one  did.  I  am  going  to  bring  that  boy  in  and 
show  him  around."  Acting  upon  his  words  he  stepped  outside  and  in  a  few  minutes  re- 
turned with  the  boy  at  his  heels.  For  a  half-hour  the  Mayor  of  Denver  patiently 
exhibited  the  wonders  of  that  car  to  the  most  appreciative  audience  of  his  career.  He  did 
not  do  so  apathetically — he  was  as  much  interested,  as  enthusiastic,  as  the  youngster  himself. 

Mayor  Speer's  enjoyment  of  nature  was  very  deep.  Flowers  and  trees  were  living 
things  to  him.  His  speech  on  "Humility"  illustrates  this  fact.  After  a  hard  snowstorm 

55 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

he  was  the  first  man  upon  his  street  to  shake  the  white  burden  from  his  trees,  and  he  per- 
sonally watered  the  palms  that  stood  in  his  office.  A  vase  of  flowers  always  rested  upon 
his  desk  at  City  Hall.  They  were  generally  of  vivid  hue,  preferably  red,  for  he  liked  bright 
colors.  It  seemed  to  symbolize  for  him  the  happiness  and  good  cheer  that  he  liked  to  see 
in  people's  faces.  Gloomy,  unhappy  people  had  a  depressing  effect  upon  him. 

When  the  Cherry  Creek  improvement  was  under  way  and  the  time  had  come  to  park 
the  terraces,  Carolina  poplars  were  planted  between  the  slower  growing  elms  in  order  to 
give  quick  shade.  The  intention  was  to  remove  the  short-lived  and  unstable  poplars  as 
soon  as  the  elms  should  have  reached  a  growth  sufficient  to  give  the  desired  result.  Indeed, 
it  was  necessary  that  this  should  be  done  to  allow  the  elms  room  in  which  to  develop.  When 
the  proper  time  arrived,  during  his  third  term,  the  city  forester  broached  the  subject. 

"Cut  down  those  trees?  No,  sir!  Not  while  I  am  mayor,"  replied  Mr.  Speer,  waxing 
warm  with  annoyance. 

"But,  Mr.  Speer,"  said  the  forester,  "it  is  for  the  good  of  the  elms  I  am  speaking. 
They  need  room  to  grow." 

"I  don't  care  what  you  are  speaking  for,"  was  the  heated  reply.  "They  are  not  going 
to  be  cut  down.  And  that  ends  it,  plunk!" 

Mayor  Speer  also  had  a  great  fondness  for  animals  and  birds.  During  his  absence 
from  the  mayor's  chair  visitors  at  his  office  in  the  Majestic  building  often,  upon  walking 
in  unannounced,  found  him  standing  at  the  window,  his  hands  in  his  pockets,  and  a  benevo- 
lent and  interested  expression  upon  his  features  as  he  watched  the  tiny  sparrows  fighting 
over  the  bird  seed  he  had  scattered  upon  the  window  ledge.  It  was  a  regular  custom  on 
his  part  to  feed  the  birds  around  his  home  every  morning  before  leaving  for  the  office. 
Sometimes,  when  his  mind  was  burdened  with  weighty  public  questions,  he  would  forget 
this,  but  upon  reaching  City  Hall,  his  first  act  would  be  to  seize  the  telephone,  call  his 
wife  and  say:  "Kate,  I  forgot  to  feed  the  birds  today.  Will  you  please  do  it  for  me?" 

Mayor  Speer's  suavity  of  address  was  an  acquired  trait,  and  it  required  the  exertion 
of  all  his  tremendous  will  power  to  secure  the  control  necessary  for  this.  A  winning  per- 
sonality was  always  his,  but  before  he  became  the  plausible,  ingratiating  politician  that  he 
was,  he  had  to  learn  mastery  of  his  emotions.  His  close  associates  often  heard  him  say: 
"I  have  had  to  teach  myself  self-control.  By  nature  I  am  quick-tempered.  My  impulse, 
when  a  man  attacks  me,  is  to  strike  back,  straight  from  the  shoulder.  But  a  man  in  public 
office  cannot  give  way  to  his  emotions.  I  have  had  to  get  control  of  my  temper  and  hold 
it  in. "  He  had  the  knack,  to  an  astonishing  degree,  of  retaining  the  friendship  of  a  man 
while  denying  that  man  something  that  he  wanted  very  earnestly.  There  are  men  who 
make  a  failure  of  public  office  because  they  cannot  bear  to  say  "no"  to  an  old  friend, 
when  he  asks  a  favor  that  their  judgment  tells  them  should  not  be  granted.  But,  if  Mayor 
Speer  thought  a  favor  should  not  be  granted,  he  could  give  a  decisive  "no,"  and  send  his 
visitor  from  the  office,  still  a  friend  and  a  stronger  admirer  of  the  Mayor  than  before. 

When  Mayor  Speer  announced  his  intention  to  run  for  office  the  third  time  as  a  non- 
partisan  his  old  followers  in  the  Democratic  organization  were  much  disturbed.  They 
had  not  grown  in  vision  and  mental  stature  as  he,  and  they  sent  a  delegation  to  find  out 
if  this  really  was  to  be  the  case.  The  former  machine  leader  quickly  informed  them  that 
the  report  was  true.  It  was  the  hardest  task  he  had  ever  performed.  This  incident 
tested  the  allegiance  of  his  supporters  to  the  uttermost,  but  the  remnants  of  the  old  machine 
withstood  even  this  strain,  and  it  was  solidly  behind  him  on  election  day. 

The  Speer  amendment,  adopted  May  17,  1916,  which  named  its  author  as  mayor, 
reflects  the  well-digested  thought  of  a  highly  practical  and  efficient  municipal  student,  and 

56 


A  CITY   BUILDER 

embodies  the  conclusions  of  a  lifetime  of  public  service.     In  many  respects  this  is  the 
most  remarkable  municipal  document  in  the  history  of  this  country. 

The  great  power  vested  in  the  mayor  under  the  Speer  amendment  was  made  possible 
by  the  consolidation  of  the  City  and  County  through  the  Twentieth  amendment  to  the 
State  Constitution,  and  the  consequent  ability  of  the  citizens  to  empower  municipal  officials 
to  perform  the  duties  of  county  officials. 

The  distinctive  features  of  the  amendment  are  centralization  of  executive  power  in  a 
mayor,  an  independent,  unicameral  council  of  nine  and  an  independent  auditor. 

This  system,  which  may  be  accurately  described  as  an  elective-manager  form,  gives 
the  mayor,  relatively  speaking,  more  power  than  the  mayor  of  any  other  American  city. 
He  practically  is  supreme  in  managing  the  city's  finances,  and  appoints  all  officials,  directly 
or  through  subordinates,  without  confirmation,  except  the  councilmen,  auditor,  election 
and  civil  service  commissions.  The  mayor  may  remove  any  employee  to  increase  efficiency, 
with  exception  of  fire  and  police  employees. 

Denver  citizens  are  protected  from  an  abuse  of  executive  power  by  the  municipal 
initiative,  referendum  and  recall.  The  preferential  voting  system  was  not  affected  by  the 
Speer  amendment.  With  these  weapons  in  the  hands  of  the  electorate  it  is  difficult  to  con- 
ceive of  a  government  more  democratic  and  just,  yet  retaining  such  effective  executive 
power.  An  unsatisfactory  official  may  be  recalled;  laws  demanded  by  the  majority  of 
the  people  may  be  initiated  and  passed;  unjust  laws  may  be  referred.  In  the  Speer 
amendment  is  centralization  of  power;  by  the  charter  all  power  is  reserved  to  the  people. 

The  mayor  appoints  directly  the  city  attorney,  four  major  executives  designated  as 
managers,  and  heads  of  eight  other  departments.  The  managers  constitute  a  cabinet 
which  advises  with  the  mayor  on  all  questions  of  finance,  public  policy,  city  planning, 
improvements  and  current  administration.  The  Speer  amendment  provides  for  a  non- 
political,  non-partisan  form  of  government. 

When  this  revolutionary  document  was  submitted  for  consideration  the  political 
opponents  of  Mr.  Speer  fought  it  on  the  ground  that  it  gave  the  mayor  too  much  power  for 
any  city  official  to  have.  They  declared  that  it  would  create  a  czar. 

So  great  was  the  confidence  of  the  people  in  Mr.  Speer's  ability  that  they  voted  him 
all  he  asked.  This  was  a  most  surprising  reversal  of  public  sentiment.  When  Mayor 
Arnold  was  elected  the  opponents  of  the  retiring  mayor  printed  what  they  termed  his 
"political  obituary."  Four  years  later  Mayor  Speer  came  back  stronger  than  ever,  and 
continued  to  grow  in  strength  through  his  administration.  It  was  more  than  the  crowning 
political  triumph  of  his  life;  it  was  a  vindication  of  his  integrity  in  office,  his  work  as  mayor 
and  his  visions  for  a  greater  Denver.  While  in  office  before,  the  assessor,  the  treasurer, 
the  sheriff,  the  clerk  and  recorder,  the  city  clerk,  had  been  elective.  Under  the  Speer 
amendment  the  people  delegated  to  him  the  power  to  appoint  all  these  officials.  Was 
there  ever  a  more  complete  expression  of  confidence  in  a  municipal  official? 

Defeated  in  this  battle  Mayor  Speer's  opponents  had  to  content  themselves  for  the 
time  being  by  the  assertion  that  the  charter,  a  one-man  power  proposition,  was  written 
for  Mayor  Speer,  and  that  no  other  man  could  be  found  big  enough,  and  capable  enough 
to  govern  the  city  under  it.  Even  during  the  heat  of  the  campaign  they  had  never  chal- 
lenged his  ability  and  genius. 

The  innovation  in  government  worked  out  perfectly  during  Mayor  Speer's  term. 
There  was  no  abuse  of  power.  It  met  all  requirements,  not  only  under  its  author,  but 
under  his  successor,  Mayor  W.  F.  R.  Mills.  To  use  a  favorite  expression  of  his,  when 
referring  to  municipal  government,  "The  character  of  the  man  is  more  important  than  the 
clothes  he  works  in. " 

57 


Priunttd  bj 
I.  A   Thaiihr, 


"The  State",  and  Its  Underlying  Virtues  and  Defenses. 


58 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Third  Term  Mayor  Speeds  Greatest — Social  Service  the  Dominant  Note 
—Non-partisanship  and  Economy  Practiced — Blue-Sky  Ordinance — Nat- 
ural Habitat  Zoo — -City  Chaplaincy  Created — War  Activities — Liberty 
Bond  Investment — War  Risk  Insurance  Premiums — Municipal  Train- 
ing School  for  Soldiers — Death. 


I 


l  HE  STATEMENT  already  has  been  made  that  Mayor  Speer's  last  term  was  his 
greatest.  We  believe  that  this  is  generally  recognized  and  admitted  by  his 
fellow-citizens,  whether  they  have  been  among  his  friends  or  opponents. 

It  was  the  finished  product  of  a  mind  ripened  by  years  of  study  and  by 
travel;  of  a  career  moulded  by  every  shade  of  adversity  and  success,  of  calumny  and  honor. 
He  was  the  readier  to  give  expression  to  impulses  for  kind  deeds  and  words.  The  result 
was  that,  while  he  still  carried  forward  his  improvement  plans,  the  dominate  note  of  this 
term  was  social  service. 

The  Speer  Amendment  had  called,  first,  for  a  non-political  administration,  and,  second, 
for  economy.  Naturally,  there  was  great  curiosity  among  Denver  citizens  to  see  how  he 
would  meet  these  pledges.  His  enemies  had  termed  them  mere  political  buncombe. 

When  the  four  managers  were  named  it  was  found  that  two  were  Democrats  and  two 
were  Republicans.  This  policy  was  carried  on  through  the  subordinate  positions. 

Under  commission  form  of  government  city  expenditures  had  mounted  steadily,  yet 
there  had  been  few  permanent  improvements  made  from  the  general  city  funds.  The 
payrolls  had  swelled  steadily.  Mayor  Speer  made  a  short  preliminary  survey  of  the  situ- 
ation and  then  began  to  abolish  positions  and  consolidate  minor  departments.  Before 
two  months  had  passed,  $85,000  a  year  had  been  cut  from  the  payrolls. 

Among  the  first  problems  taken  up  were  the  Civic  Center  improvement  and  acquisi- 
tion of  the  municipal  organ  for  the  Auditorium.  In  a  previous  chapter  his  success  along 
these  lines  had  been  discussed,  so  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  repeat  these  accomplishments. 

Mayor  Speer  next  determined  to  secure  the  transfer  of  insane  patients  from  the 
City  and  County  Hospital  to  the  State  Asylum  in  Pueblo.  From  the  standpoint  of  human- 
ity and  economy  this  long  had  been  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  Denver  citizens.  For  years  the 
authorities  at  the  State  Asylum  had  refused  to  accept  persons  adjudged  insane,  except  in 
very  small  numbers  and  at  their  convenience.  The  result  was  that  the  city  had  been 
forced  to  maintain  an  insane  ward  at  the  County  Hospital,  which  had  not  been  designed 
for  the  accommodation  of  patients  such  as  these.  Approximately  one  hundred  and  fifty 
unfortunate  men  and  women  had  been  crowded  into  inadequate  quarters,  and  left  totally 
without  the  proper  exercise,  surroundings  and  attention.  Furthermore,  the  cost  to  the 
city  and  county  had  averaged  $40,000  a  year.  The  Colorado  Constitution  provides  that 
the  care  of  the  insane  shall  devolve  upon  the  state.  However,  the  authorities  at  the 
asylum  claimed  a  discriminatory  power,  and  pleaded  lack  of  accommodations. 

Previous  administrations  had  tried  to  remedy  the  situation  by  appeals  to  state  author- 
ities and  to  the  Legislature.  All  efforts  had  proved  in  vain.  Mayor  Speer  ordered  peti- 
tions printed  for  submission  at  the  state  election  in  November,  1916,  of  an  initiated  amend- 
ment to  the  existing  statutes  bearing  on  the  subject  of  the  insane.  These  were  circulated 
through  the  state,  an  intelligent  campaign  made,  and  the  people,  by  adoption  of  the  bill, 
ordered  the  state  officials  to  provide  adequate  quarters  for  all  persons  legally  adjudged 

59 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

insane.  Within  a  few  weeks  such  quarters  had  been  provided  and  the  insane  victims  in 
the  County  Hospital  taken  where  they  stood  some  chance  of  recovering  their  reason. 

In  conjunction  with  the  Civic  Center  improvement,  Mayor  Speer  began  a  personal 
campaign  among  wealthy  residents  to  secure  donations  of  important  gifts  to  the  city.  He 
secured  pledges  from  a  number  of  men  and,  on  December  8,  1916,  in  a  semi-annual  address 
before  the  Civic  and  Commercial  Association,  delivered  his  now  famous  "Give  While 
You  Live"  speech.  This  created  a  profound  impression,  taken  in  conjunction  with  the 
attractive  idea  of  a  Colonnade  of  Civic  Benefactors.  Over  a  half-million  dollars  in  gifts 
were  showered  upon  the  city  within  eighteen  months.  Among  the  gifts  announced  at  that 
time  were  the  following:  A  monumental  fountain  to  cost  $100,000,  designed  by  Lorado 
Taft,  of  Chicago,  and  presented  by  the  late  Joseph  A.  Thatcher,  a  pioneer  banker;  the 
pipe  organ;  a  $35,000  gateway  at  the  esplanade  entrance  to  the  City  Park,  presented  by 
John  Clarke  Mitchell  in  memory  of  Dennis  Sullivan,  pioneer  banker;  a  number  of  drinking 
fountains,  not  erected  at  this  writing,  presented  by  a  man  who  asked  that  his  name  be 
withheld.  At  the  same  time  Mayor  Speer  announced  that  the  city  would  soon  commence 
construction  of  the  Yoorhies  Memorial  Gate  on  the  Bates  Triangle  in  the  Civic  Center. 
J.  H.  P.  Voorhies,  a  wealthy  pioneer,  had  left  his  estate,  approximately  3115,000,  for  this 
purpose.  Construction  also  was  started  on  the  Monti  Gate  at  the  Montview  Boulevard 
entrance  to  the  City  Park,  a  $15,000  granite  gateway  bequeathed  by  Joshua  Monti. 
Within  a  few  days  after  the  address  the  heirs  of  Junius  F.  Brown,  pioneer  merchant,  gave 
to  the  city  his  notable  collection  of  paintings,  valued  at  $100,000.  These  included  can- 
vases by  Jean  Francois  Millet,  Camille  Corot,  Jean  Baptiste,  Narcisse  de  la  Pena  Diaz, 
Homer  Martin,  Henry  Ranger,  Georges  De  Mare,  Charles  Partridge  Adams,  Blommers, 
T.  Bertillot,  William  Keith,  and  many  others  of  note. 

The  donation  of  a  $40,000  canvas  by  John  C.  Shaffer,  by  Georges  Rochegrosse,  was 
also  made  at  this  time. 

The  following  December  Mayor  Speer  was  enabled  to  make  a  further  announcement 
of  gifts.  These  latter  included:  a  $75,000  annex  to  the  Colorado  Museum  of  Natural 
History  in  City  Park,  presented  by  Mrs.  Joseph  Standley  in  memory  of  her  husband;  two 
stone  gateways  for  entrances  to  the  Denver  Mountain  Parks,  presented  by  Finlay  L. 
MacFarland;  two  bronze  statues,  one  and  one-half  times  life  size,  to  be  located  upon  the 
Civic  Center  in  front  of  the  colonnade.  These  groups,  "The  Bucking  Broncho"  and  "The 
Indian  Scout,"  will  be  delivered  and  installed  during  1919.  They  were  presented  by  J.  K. 
Mullen  and  Stephen  Knight,  respectively,  and  were  designed  by  A.  Phimister  Proctor, 
the  noted  sculptor  of  western  life,  whose  boyhood  days  were  spent  on  the  streets  of  Denver. 
Each  will  cost  $15,000. 

The  Stockyards  Association  constructed  an  open  air  swimming  pool  at  the  Elyria 
Playgrounds,  and  the  city  erected  a  bath-house  in  conjunction  with  it. 

The  nation  felt  the  pinch  of  the  war  during  the  spring  of  1917,  and  soon  prices 
started  to  climb.  Coal  dealers  began  to  forecast  an  advance  in  the  price  of  fuel  during  the 
next  winter.  These  signs  did  not  long  escape  the  keen  eye  of  Mayor  Speer  and,  in  June, 
1917,  he  ordered  an  investigation  of  the  coal  situation.  The  City  Council  passed  a  food 
and  fuel  ordinance.  An  expert  was  sent  to  the  lignite  fields  of  Northern  Colorado  and, 
after  a  few  weeks  of  preliminary  work,  the  city  signed  contracts  with  the  owners  of  three 
coal  mines  for  their  output.  The  Speer  Amendment  had  created  a  municipal  industrial 
bureau  to  stimulate  trade,  encourage  industry  and  help  labor.  It  had  already  revived 
some  failing  industries.  To  this  bureau  Mayor  Speer  turned  over  the  problem  of  organizing 
and  conducting  a  municipal  coal  department  on  a  large,  wholesale  plan.  The  city  rented 
three  yards,  equipped  them,  and,  on  September  15,  1917,  began  to  take  orders  for  domestic 

60 


A   CITY   BUILDER 

consumption,  as  well  as  to  supply  all  city  and  county  institutions.  The  result  of  this 
policy  was  that  the  price  of  lignite,  the  poor  man's  coal,  was  held  down  within  reasonable 
limits,  the  market  was  stabilized  and  the  retail  coal  dealers  did  not  dare  to  attempt  the 
threatened  increase.  Influence  from  every  imaginable  source  was  brought  to  bear  to  pre- 
vent this  departure  in  city  government.  An  attempt  was  made  to  buy  the  mines  doing  busi- 
ness with  the  city  so  as  to  stop  delivery  of  coal.  To  combat  this  movement  Mayor  Speer, 
in  an  address  before  the  Civic  and  Commercial  Association  on  December  8,  1917,  gave  the 
following  public  warning  to  the  antagonistic  coal  dealers:  "You  are  kindling  fires  which 
may  destroy  you,  so  far  as  the  coal  business  of  Denver  is  concerned.  Our  people  are  willing 
to  pay  a  fair  profit,  but  they  will  not  be  imposed  upon.  Denver  can  go  into  the  coal  business 
in  a  proper  way — own  and  operate  its  own  mines — haul  coal  at  night  over  the  tramway 
lines  to  depots  in  all  parts  of  the  city;  then  with  a  short  haul  deliver  it  to  the  people  and 
industries  cheaper  than  you  can  possibly  do  it. "  This  warning  served  to  check  the  operators. 

The  first  year  of  business  showed  that  the  city  coal  department  had  done  a  business 
of  $211,559.73,  and  saved  to  domestic  consumers  approximately  $50,000.  A  total  of 
37,520  tons  was  delivered  to  domestic  consumers,  and  10,583  tons  to  city  departments. 
After  taking  over  the  water  plant,  the  department  added  this  and  the  Library  to  the  insti- 
tutions supplied  with  coal,  and  the  total  annual  amount  now  delivered  to  city  institutions 
through  the  department  is  approximately  20,000  tons. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  year  the  advance  in  flour  made  the  bread  situation  acute. 
The  ordinance  authorizing  the  city  to  engage  in  the  coal  business  also  instructed  the  mayor 
to  take  steps  to  lower  the  prices  of  standard  foods,  if  he  deemed  it  necessary.  With  the  idea 
of  bringing  down  the  cost  of  bread  Mayor  Speer,  on  December  17, 1917,  opened  a  municipal 
bakery  in  the  county  jail,  where  a  small  plant  was  then  in  operation.  The  organization 
was  placed  under  one  of  the  city  councilmen,  John  Conlon,  a  baker  by  trade.  Before  exact 
costs  could  be  established  The  National  Food  Administration  began  to  issue  its  rulings,  mak- 
ing it  unnecessary  and  practically  impossible  for  the  city  to  furnish  bread  to  the  people. 
However,  Mayor  Speer  ordered  the  continuance  of  the  bakery  in  the  event  of  an  emergency, 
and  directed  that  city  institutions  be  supplied  from  it.  The  city  bakery  produces  bread 
for  thirty-eight  one-hundred ths  of  a  cent  per  ounce,  as  compared  to  sixty-six  one-hundredths 
of  a  cent  paid  by  the  city  to  commercial  bakeries  during  1917.  Among  the  institutions 
that  now  secure  their  bread  there  are  the  county  hospital,  county  farm,  Steele  hospital, 
Sand  Creek  hospital  and  Detention  Home.  Several  former  human  wrecks  have  secured 
positions  with  commercial  bakeries  and  are  now  useful  citizens. 

During  the  same  month  Mayor  Speer  urged  the  sale  of  the  old  county  farm,  a  160-acre 
tract  of  land,  abandoned  because  of  its  unsuitability  for  the  purpose.  For  fifteen  years  it 
had  been  a  white  elephant  on  the  hands  of  the  city.  Before  the  abolishment  of  the  old 
board  of  county  commissioners  two  rights-of-way  across  the  farm  had  been  sold  to  railroads, 
with  the  result  that  it  had  been  cut  up,  swamps  caused  by  lack  of  proper  drainage,  and 
the  farm  reduced  to  an  estimated  value  of  $10,000.  This  land  was  drained  and  sold  for 
approximately  $40,000. 

Mayor  Speer  closed  the  year  with  a  large  surplus  in  the  treasury.  In  fact,  every  year 
during  his  three  terms  showed  the  return  of  a  surplus,  always  exceeding  $100,000,  while  a 
considerable  percentage  of  city  general  funds  were  invested  annually  in  permanent  public 
improvements.  As  a  financial  administrator  of  public  funds  he  was  without  an  equal  in 
the  history  of  Denver. 

Toward  the  close  of  1917  the  operations  of  oil  stock  promoters  in  Denver  became  so 
frenzied  as  to  threaten  a  scandal  that  would  bring  Denver  into  the  limelight  nationally. 
Oil  promoters  began  to  congregate  in  the  city,  among  them  some  with  penitentiary  records. 

61 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

The  most  bare-faced  "fakes"  were  promoted  and  stock  sold  under  the  lure  of  glittering 
advertisements  in  the  newspapers.  The  state  had  no  adequate  blue-sky  law  and  there 
seemed  no  way  in  which  to  prevent  people  from  staking  and  losing  their  money  in  the  oil 
exchanges.  It  was  the  poorer  and  middle  classes  who  seemed  to  fall  victims  most  readily. 
They  began  to  draw  their  money  from  savings  banks  and  to  invest  in  projects  which  were 
without  any  merit. 

Mayor  Speer  viewed  this  situation  with  considerable  alarm  and  issued  warnings  several 
times  through  the  newspapers,  but  the  prospect  of  gaining  wealth  quickly  on  a  gambling 
proposition  was  too  alluring  for  the  victims  to  resist.  Finally,  in  December,  1917,  Mayor 
Speer  ordered  prepared  a  municipal  blue-sky  ordinance,  which  provided  for  the  licensing 
of  oil  exchanges  and  brokers  for  purposes  of  regulation.  The  Council  approved  the  plan 
and  passed  the  ordinance  December  10th.  Immediately  after  it  had  gone  into  effect  the 
brokers  and  promoters  of  several  suspected  companies  were  summoned  to  appear  before 
Manager  of  Safety  Dewey  C.  Bailey,  in  whom  authority  for  enforcement  of  the  ordinance 
was  placed.  Within  the  next  four  months  some  twenty-three  companies  had  been  investigated 
and  the  findings  made  public  in  the  newspapers.  Several  brokerage  licenses  were  revoked. 
The  investigation  of  one  company,  as  an  illustration,  showed  that  $594,192. 72  worth  of  stock 
had  been  sold;  that  of  this  $237,677  had  been  paid  out  in  commissions  for  stock  sales;  that 
the  investors  did  not  have  the  slimmest  chance  to  recover  a  dollar  from  their  investments. 

The  oil  market  in  Denver  showed  an  immediate  decline  after  this,  and  by  the  time  the 
third  report  was  published  in  June,  1918,  the  wild-catters  had  been  driven  from  the  city. 
The  result  of  the  investigation  was  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  were  saved  Denver 
citizens  by  this  prompt  and  effective  measure.  The  unfavorable  advertising  given  the 
promoters  was  scattered  broadcast,  and  put  out  of  business  companies  that  had  been  selling 
stock  throughout  the  west  and  middle  west,  even  though  the  ordinance  was  not  effective 
outside  the  city  and  county  limits  of  Denver. 

Early  in  the  year  1917  Mayor  Speer's  attention  had  been  called  to  the  need  for  im- 
provements at  the  City  Park  Zoo.  He  cast  about  for  a  design  that  would  be  distinctive. 
It  was  forthcoming  immediately,  for  the  superintendent,  Victor  Borcherdt,  had  worked 
out  plans  for  a  natural  habitat  zoo,  built  from  concrete,  stained  to  represent  natural  rock, 
the  models  for  which  were  to  be  taken  directly  from  cliffs  in  the  Rockies  west  of  Denver. 

This  plan  had  been  submitted  to  three  park  department  heads,  one  of  whom  served 
under  Mayor  Arnold.  The  other  two  were  Commissioners  of  Property  under  commission 
form.  None  of  them  had  grasped  the  possibilities  of  the  plan.  Mayor  Speer  at  once 
realized  its  advantages  and  ordered  commencement  of  the  work.  A  crew  of  men  was 
sent  to  the  mountains  to  secure  models,  work  was  commenced  on  the  site,  and  within 
the  last  week  it  has  been  completed — a  miniature  mountain,  without  bars  or  fences.  The 
animals  have  been  separated  from  the  public  by  a  moat;  trees  and  shrubs  grow  upon  the 
cliff  sides,  waterfalls  trickle  down  the  face  of  the  rocks  while,  from  the  replica  of  a  cliff- 
dwelling,  the  faces  of  monkeys  peer  whimsically  at  the  spectator.  The  advantage  of  this 
creation  as  a  landscape  feature,  as  an  improvement  from  the  standpoint  of  the  animals, 
and  as  an  educational  feature  of  prime  importance,  cannot  be  overestimated. 

Another  social  service  measure  fathered  by  Mayor  Speer  was  the  creation  of  the  office 
of  city  chaplain  in  March,  1918.  The  manner  in  which  the  idea  was  born  illustrates 
the  Mayor's  habit  of  noting  everything  that  occurred  about  him,  and  of  analyzing 
the  ordinary  transactions  of  life. 

For  months  a  quiet,  grave  man  frequently  had  dropped  into  the  Mayor's  office  to  ask 
a  pardon -for  some  unfortunate  who,  with  extenuating  circumstances  to  his  credit,  had  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  the  law.  This  man  was  Jim  Goodheart,  founder  of  the  Sunshine  Rescue 

62 


A   CITY   BUILDER 

Mission,  known  to  the  Mayor  for  many  years.  The  frequency  of  these  visits  and  the  per- 
sistence of  the  pleader  finally  aroused  curiosity  in  the  restless  mind  of  the  executive.  This 
first  manifested  itself  in  a  searching  cross-examination  of  Goodheart  each  time  he  appeared. 
The  latter  grew  apprehensive.  He  feared  he  might  be  wearying  the  Mayor. 

These  questions,  however,  merely  foreshadowed  the  passage  of  an  ordinance  creating 
the  office  of  City  Chaplain.  An  excerpt  from  the  Mayor's  letter  to  the  Council,  recommend- 
ing the  adoption  of  such  an  ordinance,  will  illustrate  the  functioning  of  his  mind  better  than 
a  description  of  the  bill : 

"  From  experience,  I  am  convinced  that  there  are  as  many  persons  in  this  community 
needing  words  of  encouragement  and  sound  advice  as  there  are  who  require  charitable  aid 
and  medical  care.  In  many  places  the  strong  arm  of  the  law  must  be  used;  the  uniform  of 
an  officer  is  necessary,  but  there  are  times  and  occasions  when  the  pointing  out  of  right  and 
wrong  will  do  more  permanent  good. 

"  Every  day  men  are  sent  to  jail  whose  wives,  children  and  mothers  are  the  real  sufferers, 
and,  on  their  account,  we  are  asked  for  a  pardon.  In  some  of  those  cases  an  opportunity 
is  presented  to  do  the  offender  good,  but  the  city  has  no  one  whose  special  duty  is  to  try 
and  bring  about  right  thinking  and  action.  If  a  chaplain  could  turn  one  in  twenty  from  his 
evil  ways  he  would  be  rendering  a  great  service  to  the  city." 

Upon  passage  of  this  ordinance  the  Mayor  named  Mr.  Goodheart  as  city  chaplain, 
imposing  upon  him  the  duty  of  visiting  the  police  court,  the  city  and  county  jails  and  the 
hospitals,  that  he  might  in  an  official  capacity,  advise  and  console  unfortunates,  ask  for 
pardons  when  advisable  and  set  the  feet  of  the  erring  upon  the  paths  of  peace. 

With  the  entry  of  this  country  into  the  European  war  Mayor  Speer,  with  the  same 
intensity  and  the  same  characteristically  distinctive  results  that  marked  all  his  labors, 
turned  his  mind  to  the  question  of  aiding  the  federal  government. 

The  first  war  activity  of  the  city  was  to  plow  free  for  the  benefit  of  thrift  gardeners 
vacant  lots  for  which  the  water  company  had  agreed  to  furnish  free  water.  Eleven  hundred 
and  thirty-four  lots  were  thus  plowed  during  the  spring  of  1917,  the  number  being  increased 
to  4,600  the  following  spring. 

During  October,  1917,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  William  G.  McAdoo  passed  through 
Denver  on  the  Second  Liberty  Loan  campaign.  The  city,  under  its  charter,  did  not  have 
the  power  to  invest  its  funds  in  government  securities,  but  Secretary  McAdoo  agreed  to 
protect  the  municipality  by  the  issuance  of  treasurer's  certificates  if  any  objection  was 
raised.  A  warrant  was  thereupon  issued  on  November  17,  1917,  upon  the  Sinking  Fund, 
for  the  purchase  of  $500,000  in  Liberty  Bonds. 

This  was  followed  by  the  passage  of  an  ordinance  providing  for  the  payment  of  premi- 
ums upon  each  war  risk  insurance  policy  up  to  $1,000,  taken  out  by  citizens  of  Denver  who 
were  serving  or  would  be  called  upon  to  serve  with  the  armed  forces  of  the  nation.  A  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  investigate  claims  and  make  disbursements,  checks  were  drawn 
upon  a  fund  set  aside  by  the  council  and,  altogether,  more  than  $40,000  was  paid  by  the 
city  for  this  purpose. 

Denver  was  the  first  American  city  to  take  this  course  as  it  was  also  first  in  establish- 
ing a  municipal  training  school  for  soldiers.  The  latter  organization  was  created  in  March, 
1918,  soon  after  the  establishment  of  the  war  risk  premium  board.  The  city  provided 
drill  masters  to  give  the  selective  service  men  training  in  the  manual  of  arms.  The 
school  was  opened  in  the  Auditorium  with  squad  and  company  drill,  afterward  develop- 
ing into  company  maneuvers  in  the  City  Park.  The  city  also  established  a  shooting  gallery 
and  secured  the  services  of  a  rifle  expert  to  teach  the  men  how  to  handle  a  rifle.  It  was 
found  that  only  thirty  to  thirty-five  per  cent,  had  ever  fired  a  gun.  As  further  aid  to  the 

63 


On  This  Site  Now  Rear  Aloft  the  Cliffs  of  the  Habitat  Zoo. 


The  Animals  Had  No  Privacy  Save  in  Small  Wooden  Huts. 


64 


Bars  Have  Been  Banished  and  Comfort  Brought  to  the  Animals 


65 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

prospective  soldiers  classes  were  established  in  conversational  French,  and  a  professor  of 
this  language  engaged  to  give  instruction. 

The  effect  of  this  school  was  soon  noted  after  the  men  began  to  report  at  the  various 
army  training  camps.  They  were  at  once  picked  out  for  their  soldierly  bearing,  knowledge 
of  tactics  and  familiarity  with  a  rifle.  A  very  high  percentage  were  made  corporals  or 
sergeants  immediately,  some  being  given  the  rank  of  top-sergeant.  The  appreciation  of 
the  boys  for  the  advantage  given  them  by  their  home  city,  and  the  gratitude  of  the  families 
for  the  financial  aid  awarded  through  the  payment  of  premiums,  is  recorded  in  hundreds 
of  letters  on  file  in  the  records  of  the  war  risk  board.  Not  alone  was  assistance  furnished  to 
the  government,  but  the  morale  of  the  men  called  from  Denver  was  raised  and  their 
devotion  to  the  city  of  their  birth  or  adoption  cemented  by  bonds  that  will  never  break. 

It  was  only  a  brief  time  after  this  that  Mayor  Speer  passed  away.  He  walked  to  his 
office  one  morning  in  May.  The  air  was  balmy  and  he  carried  his  overcoat  over  his  arm. 
A  cold  developed,  but  he  paid  no  attention  to  it.  He  made  a  few  attempts  to  perform  his 
day's  work  but  soon  was  compelled  to  return  home  for  the  last  time.  Double  pneumonia 
developed,  and  after  a  brief  illness  he  passed  away  at  3  o'clock  p.  m.,  May  14,  1918. 

His  last  words  showed  that  his  work  still  was  his  dominant  thought.  In  a  semi- 
conscious condition  he  murmured:  "I  am  under  a  strain  all  the  time.  Even  now  I  feel 
it.  I  am  trying  to  make  the  affairs  of  the  city  best  conform  to  national  needs  at  this  time." 

His  physician  said:  "I  wish  that  you  would  put  such  thoughts  out  of  your  mind  for 
the  present.  Wait  till  you  are  stronger." 

The  last  words  of  the  Mayor  were:     "It  is  a  strain,  just  the  same." 

The  news  of  the  great  Mayor's  death  struck  Denver  with  the  impact  of  a  blow.  It 
brought  genuine  grief  to  her  citizens  and,  as  the  days  passed,  the  conviction  became  settled 
that  his  loss  would  result  in  a  serious  set-back  in  Denver's  development. 

Funeral  services  in  honor  of  the  Mayor  were  held  on  May  17.  For  an  entire  afternoon 
his  body  laid  in  state  in  the  Auditorium  of  which  he  had  been  so  proud.  More  than  ten 
thousand  persons  attended  the  ceremonies.  The  Right  Rev.  Bishop  J.  Henry  Tihen  of 
the  Catholic  diocese  of  Colorado,  delivered  the  invocation;  the  Rev.  David  H.  Fouse,  of  the 
First  Reformed  Church,  made  the  memorial  address;  the  Episcopal  funeral  service  was  read 
by  the  Right  Rev.  Dean  H.  Martyn  Hart,  while  Rabbi  W.  S.  Friedman  offered  the  bene- 
diction. The  host  of  mourners  also  was  catholic  in  character.  With  the  conclusion  of  the 
ceremony  the  people  upon  request  filed  from  the  building,  formed  into  line  and  passed 
through  to  view  the  remains.  No  ceremony  of  the  kind  could  have  shown  less  ostentation 
or  display.  The  building  was  without  decoration  of  any  kind,  except  a  massed  bank  of 
palms  and  crossed  American  flags  at  the  foot  of  the  organ,  and  a  simple  band  of  crepe  around 
the  casket.  As  the  long  line  surged  slowly  past  the  bier  the  great  instrument  which  Mayor 
Speer  had  so  recently  installed,  played  faintly  the  beautiful  Chopin  funeral  march.  In  line 
were  the  city's  wealthiest  and  poorest.  Business  men,  social  leaders,  laborers;  men  and 
women  of  every  nationality  filed  past,  while  a  guard  of  police  officers  stood  at  attention. 
Women  with  babes  in  arms  stood  patiently  for  more  than  an  hour  that  they  might  show 
honor  and  respect  to  the  man  who,  for  so  many  years,  had  been  the  city's  first  citizen. 
In  its  extreme  simplicity  and  the  great  outpouring  of  citizens,  the  ceremony  was  the  most 
impressive  of  its  kind  that  the  city  had  ever  witnessed. 

The  final  Sunday  organ  concert  of  the  winter  season  on  May  26  was  made  the  occasion 
of  a  memorial  service  to  the  late  Mayor.  The  Rev.  Mark  Laptan  offered  the  invocation 
on  this  occasion;  the  Rev.  George  B.Vosburgh  gave  a  reading  from  the  Scriptures;Chancellor 
Henry  A.  Buchtel  of  Denver  University,  former  Governor  of  Colorado,  delivered  a  masterly 
eulogy  and  the  Rev.  Charles  Odell  Thibodeau  pronounced  the  benediction. 

66 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Personal  Interests  Neglected  by  Mayor  Speer  in  Service  of  the  City — His 
Vision  for  Denver's  Betterment  a  Legacy  of  Incalculable  Value — Over- 
land Park — Decorative  Sculpture — The  Monumental  Fountain  on  the 
Civic  Center  Suggested  as  a  Memorial —  His  Last  Vision :  The  Mount 
Evans  Drive,  an  Outgrowth  of  the  Mountain  Park  Idea  —  Conclusion. 

O>JE  OF  THE  FAVORITE  accusations  of  Mayor  Speer's  enemies  was  that  he  had 
become  enormously  wealthy  through  his  official  connection  with  the  city  gov- 
ernment. Veiled  charges  and  insinuations  were  made  that  he  had  profited 
from  the  improvements  completed,  through  real  estate  holdings,  and  no  stone 
was  left  unturned  in  the  effort  to  discover  a  modicum  of  proof  to  bear  out  these  asser- 
tions. Some  even  said  that  he  was  a  millionaire.  The  constant  reiteration  of  these  tales  had 
created  a  general  impression  that  he  was  at  least  worth  several  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

The  finest  testimonial  to  his  integrity  and  personal  honor  was  made  public  when  his 
estate  was  probated  in  the  County  Court.  This  man  who  had  had  unlimited  opportunities 
to  profit,  who  had  handled  many  millions  of  the  people's  money,  left  an  estate  of 
$45,000.  When  his  great  natural  business  ability  is  taken  into  consideration  this  modest 
sum  is  the  best  possible  evidence  that  Mayor  Speer,  as  his  friends  already  knew,  had  neg- 
lected his  personal  interest  continually,  because  he  preferred  to  give  his  time  in  the  service 
of  Denver.  Almost  any  line  of  business  that  he  could  have  chosen  would  have  yielded  him 
far  greater  returns  than  the  office  of  mayor.  As  a  matter  of  fact  Mayor  Speer,  during  his 
last  term  in  office,  was  offered  a  position  at  a  salary  of  $12,000  a  year.  He  was  then  receiv- 
ing $6,000  a  year  as  mayor,  but  he  rejected  the  proposition  without  a  second  thought.  Dur- 
ing one  of  his  speeches  before  a  bankers  association  he  coined  the  phrase,  "Hand  money 
and  heart  money."  While  Mayor  Speer  left  no  considerable  estate  of  hand  money,  he 
bequeathed  an  inexhaustible  fortune  in  heart  money.  To  the  city  that  he  loved  and  to 
her  citizens  he  willed  his  undaunted  spirit,  faith  and  courage;  his  high  ideals  of  citizenship 
and  manhood,  and  his  visions.  It  remains  to  be  seem  whether  this  heritage  is  not  greater 
than  all  his  public  works,  for  it  will  appear  and  reappear  through  the  years  as  the  builders 
of  the  future  bring  to  pass  the  things  that  he  had  planned. 

Mayor  Speer's  visions  are  tangible  assets,  not  the  vapory  fabric  of  dreams.  Some  of 
them,  and  we  cite  as  examples  the  Civic  Center,  the  Habitat  Zoo,  the  Platte  River  drive, 
already  have  been  partially  realized. 

Others  await  the  time  when  another  shall  put  them  into  execution.  Some  are  in  process 
of  formation.  Mayor  Mills,  his  successor,  pledged  himself  to  execute  insofar  as  possible 
the  trust  left  him  by  Mayor  Speer.  Soon  after  the  latter's  death  he  signed  the  contract 
for  the  "  Wynken,  Blynken  and  Nod"  group,  and  this  will  be  installed  in  Washington  Park. 

This  idealistic  children's  group  has  a  strong  local  sentiment  attached  to  it,  for  Eugene 
Field,  whose  lullaby  was  the  inspiration  of  the  artist,  secured  his  start  toward  fame  on  the 
old  Denver  Tribune.  The  sculptress,  Mabel  Landrum  Torrey,  is  a  native  Colorado  girl. 

Just  before  Mayor  Speer's  death  he  conceived  the  idea  of  purchasing  Overland  Park, 
the  spot  where  the  first  potatoes  were  raised  in  Colorado  and  the  historic  grounds  upon 
which  horse  racing,  automobile  racing  and  the  first  flight  of  an  aeroplane  over  Denver, 
were  staged.  Mayor  Speer  planned  to  purchase  the  west  fifty-five  acres  for  a  gravel  supply 
for  street  work,  line  with  cement  the  pits  left  by  excavation,  and  create  a  monster  bathing 

67 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

beach,  supplied  with  running  water  from  the  South  Platte.  The  remaining  part  of  the 
quarter  section  was  to  be  acquired  through  gift  or  bond  issue  and  converted  into  one  of  the 
great  sport  parks  of  the  country,  where  the  people  might  engage  in  athletic  games  and  con- 
tests. Mayor  Mills  carried  out  the  first  step  by  signing  a  contract  for  acquisition  of  the 
park  in  January,  1919,  and  this  is  a  vision  that  seems  sure  of  realization. 

During  his  first  administration  Mayor  Speer  conceived  a  project  for  construction  of 
a  shaded  driveway  along  the  banks  of  the  South  Platte  River  to  the  mouth  of  Platte  Canon. 
Quietly  and  unostentatiously  he  pushed  this  drive  within  the  city  limits,  and  more  has 
been  accomplished  than  a  majority  of  Denver  residents  realize.  Several  miles  of  the  Platte 
River  channel  have  been  walled  with  concrete,  as  in  the  case  of  Cherry  Creek,  while  th,e 
driveway,  awaiting  only  a  finished  surface,  extends  to  within  a  short  distance  of  Overland 
Park.  It  will  now  be  comparatively  a  simple  matter  to  carry  the  drive  to  the  city  limits, 
and  when  that  shall  have  been  accomplished  the  fulfillment  of  the  vision  will  follow  as  a 
matter  of  course.  It  will  not  offer  sensational  loops  and  hairpin  turns,  such  as  the  Moun- 
tain Park  highways  afford,  but  it  will  give  a  pleasant  trip  under  the  stately  cottonwoods  to 
the  mountain  portals  on  the  south. 

One  of  the  subjects  constantly  upon  Mayor  Speer's  tongue  during  his  last  administra- 
tion was  the  lack  of  decorative  sculpture.  He  felt  that  too  much  attention  had  been  paid 
to  architectural  forms,  and  that  the  artistic  development  of  the  city  had  been  neglected 
from  the  decorative  standpoint.  "We  need  more  sculpture,  set  at  the  end  of  street  and  park 
vistas,  more  fountains,  more  life,"  he  reiterated.  Before  his  death  he  had  concentrated 
all  his  energies  upon  the  problem  of  meeting  this  want,  and  it  is  known  that  he  had  con- 
verted several  wealthy  men  to  the  idea. 

In  passing  it  may  be  said  that  Mayor  Speer  never  approached  a  man  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  a  donation  without  having  a  tangible  suggestion.  If  at  all  possible,  he  had  secured 
a  drawing,  a  photograph,  or  a  model  to  visualize  the  idea  he  intended  to  convey.  This, 
backed  up  by  his  contagious  enthusiasm,  enabled  the  unimaginative  to  conceive  a  mental 
picture  of  the  object. 

In  connection  with  the  Civic  Center  Mayor  Speer  had  several  definite  objects  in  view. 
He  regarded  it  as  necessary  for  completion  of  the  scheme  that  a  City  and  County  Building 
should  be  erected  on  the  block  west  of  Bannock  street,  facing  the  Capitol.  He  already 
had  interested  some  wealthy  men  in  a  project  to  erect  an  art  gallery  to  conform  with  the 
library,  and  had  he  lived,  would  have  appointed  a  committee  to  raise  funds  for  it. 

The  imperative  improvement  needed  on  the  Civic  Center,  in  Mayor  Speer's  eyes,  was 
the  central  fountain  on  the  main  plaza.  This,  he  believed,  should  be  spectacular  in  the 
highest  possible  degree.  A  towering  jet  of  water,  sculptured  groups  pregnant  with  life  and 
action,  and  a  series  of  bronze  plaques  upon  which  should  be  placed  the  heads  of  the  state's 
great  builders  in  bas-relief,  were  the  central  features  of  the  plan.  So  well  known  to  his  friends 
was  his  determination  to  secure  this  fountain  for  the  city  that  its  erection  as  a  memorial 
to  him  has  been  suggested.  Executed  in  the  way  he  would  have  endorsed,  nothing  could 
be  made  to  express  more  accurately  and  nobly  the  spirit  of  Speer,  for  he  was  imbued  with 
the  dynamic  force,  the  virile  qualities,  that  the  fountain  must  possess. 

In  closing  this  little  book  it  is  but  proper  the  final  words  should  be  of  Mayor  Speer's 
last  and  greatest  vision — the  Mount  Evans  Drive.  To  the  people  of  Denver  the  plan  is 
comparatively  new,  as  its  agitation  did  not  commence  until  Mayor  Speer's  third  term  had 
opened.  But  the  dream  had  haunted  him  through  the  years  of  a  transcendent  skyline 
road  that  should  ascend  from  Denver,  pass  through  the  mountain  gorges  and  eventually 
emerge  on  the  summit  of  some  high  peak.  It  was  the  natural  sequel,  for  a  man  of  his  dis- 
cernment, of  the  mountain  park  idea. 

68 


A  Splendid,  Uncompleted  Vision — The  Platte  River  Drive 


69 


70 


A   CITY   BUILDER 

While  Denver's  great  mountain  park  system  largely  was  developed  during  the  period 
of  his  absence  from  office,  Mayor  Speer  was  the  originator  of  the  idea  and  strongly  supported 
the  amendment  authorizing  the  mill  levy  for  the  construction  work.  In  making  the  above 
statement  the  writer  is  aware  of  the  fact  that  it  will  be  challenged.  Credit  for  the  idea 
generally  has  been  given  to  Mr.  John  Brisben  Walker  of  this  city,  who  brought  the  matter 
before  the  board  of  directors  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  in  September,  1910,  and  later 
to  the  attention  of  the  Real  Estate  Exchange.  The  latter  body  appointed  a  committee 
of  ten,  headed  by  K.  A.  Pence  as  chairman,  to  investigate  the  subject.  Two  months  later 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce  referred  the  matter  to  its  committee  on  Parks  and  Boulevards, 
of  which  Mr.  Warwick  M.  Downing  was  chairman.  The  two  committees  joined  forces 
and  Mr.  Downing  was  elected  chairman  of  a  joint  executive  committee.  A  few  days  later 
a  committee  from  the  Denver  Motor  Club  was  added,  and  other  organizations  rapidly 
came  into  line.  The  executive  committee  met  once  a  week  for  more  than  a  year  and  finally 
adopted  a  plan  for  a  mountain  park  system  which  was  submitted  to  the  joint  committee 
and  later  to  the  Mayor.  On  May  21,  1912,  a  charter  amendment  was  submitted  to  the 
voters  in  which  provision  was  made  for  a  one-half  mill  levy  for  acquisition  of  mountain 
park  lands,  and  improvement  of  them. 

This  is  the  official  record  as  commonly  accepted  in  Denver,  but  upon  close  investigation 
the  writer  found  that  Mayor  Speer,  in  an  address  delivered  on  the  occasion  of  the  twenty- 
fifth  anniversary  banquet  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  May  24,  1909,  said:  "The  man, 
or  combination  of  men,  who  will  build  a  shaded  drive  or  Appian  Way  from  our  city  into  the 
mountains,  opening  into  the  canons,  and  to  the  summit  of  our  lofty  peaks,  will  be  remem- 
bered and  praised  by  other  generations." 

In  these  words,  delivered  eighteen  months  before  Mr.  Walker  first  publicly  mentioned 
the  subject,  we  find  foreshadowed,  not  alone  construction  of  the  mountain  parks,  but 
construction  of  the  Mount  Evans  Drive.  If  this  is  not  sufficient  to  clinch  the  argument 
an  extract  from  a  speech  delivered  by  Mayor  Speer  before  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  on  February  21,  1910,  definitely  suggests  a  mountain  park  system  for  the  city. 
On  this  occasion  the  Mayor  said,  in  suggesting  benefactions  for  the  wealthy  citizens:  "A 
splendid  opportunity  is  presented  for  some  one  with  means  to  secure  and  present  to  the  city 
a  ten-thousand-acre  mountain  park,  within  twenty  or  twenty-five  miles  of  the  city,  with 
beautiful  valleys,  canons,  streams,  cliffs  and  scenery  unsurpassed,  where  the  masses  may 
spend  a  happy  day  and  feel  that  some  of  the  grandeur  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  belongs  to 
them.  The  donor  of  such  a  gift  would  be  remembered  for  generations  to  come.  Denver 
would  be  the  attractive  American  city;  within  its  sight  would  be  opened  the  scenery  of 
Switzerland  and  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  which  must  be  connected  with  first  class  railways. 
The  question  is,  how  are  they  to  be  built?  Our  state  is  behind  in  road  building.  The  city 
has  not  authority  to  go  beyond  its  limits.  The  surrounding  counties  are  new  and  cannot 
alone  afford  to  build  the  highways  required,  and  I  believe  that  we  should  go  to  the  next 
legislature  and  ask  for  a  road  improvement  district,  consisting  of  Denver,  Adams,  Arapahoe, 
Douglas,  Jefferson  and  Boulder  counties,  with  authority  to  issue  long-time  district  bonds 
to  build  modern  road-ways.  Denver  needs  them  to  send  our  new  people  and  tourists  out 
to  see  the  wonders  surrounding  us,  and  Denver  should  help  pay  for  them." 

During  the  summer  of  1910  Mayor  Speer  made  many  automobile  trips  into  the  foot- 
hills west  of  Denver,  found  and  explored  tracts  of  mountain  land  that  he  believed  would 
make  desirable  parks. 

It  is  not  with  any  desire  to  detract  from  the  credit  due  Mr.  Walker's  suggestion  that  the 
facts  in  regard  to  this  matter  are  published,  for  the  latter  has  been  the  originator  of  many 

71 


ROBERT  W.   SPEER 

valuable  ideas,  but  the  records  of  the  case  all  point  to  the  conclusion  that  Mr.  Speer  was  the 
first  publicly  to  advocate  mountain  parks. 

Mayor  Speer  took  up  the  Mount  Evans  subject  in  1917.  Various  plans  were  brought 
to  the  attention  of  the  commercial  bodies  and  citizens,  but  the  one  finally  decided  upon 
as  offering  the  best  chances  for  realization  of  the  project,  was  that  for  the  creation  of  a 
national  park  from  this  region.  The  proposed  drive,  which  will  form  the  distinctive  feature 
of  this  project,  as  differentiated  from  all  other  national  parks,  is  the  construction  of  a  road 
from  Squaw  Pass  to  the  summit  of  the  peak,  which  will  remain  above  timberline  for  more 
than  half  of  the  distance,  scale  the  edges  of  precipices  two  thousand  feet  in  height,  touch 
the  interesting  lakes  that  lie  above  timberline,  and  offer  views  that  cannot  be  excelled  on 
the  continent.  In  order  that  the  city  should  be  enabled  to  meet  the  government  half-way, 
Mayor  Speer  directed  that  the  mountain  park  road  system  be  extended  from  Bergen  Park 
to  Squaw  Pass,  and  instituted  proceedings  for  acquisition  by  the  city  of  some  five  thousand 
acres  of  privately-owned  land  within  the  borders  of  the  proposed  park.  To  throw  the 
revealing  light  of  publicity  upon  the  advantages  of  the  plan  he  sent  several  expeditions  to 
Mount  Evans  for  the  purpose  of  securing  photographs  and  data,  which  should  show  the 
scenic  wonders  of  the  region.  For  two  years  a  bill  for  creation  of  the  Mount  Evans  Park 
has  been  before  Congress.  The  initial  stages  have  been  passed  and  the  prospect  for  crea- 
tion of  the  park  seem  of  the  best.  This  project  now  stands  at  the  head  of  the  National 
Park  Bureaus  plans,  for  it  has  received  the  endorsement  of  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
Franklin  K.  Lane,  as  well  as  that  of  the  director  of  the  bureau,  Mr.  Stephen  Mather. 

The  Mount  Evans  drive  was  the  most  daring  conception  ever  fathered  by  Mayor 
Speer.  That  brief  reference  to  a  driveway  that  would  reach  "to  the  summit  of  our  higher 
peaks,"  made  in  May,  1909,  is  indubitable  proof,  when  one  considers  his  methods  and  works, 
that  his  mind  had  leaped  what  were  then  considered  insuperable  barriers  and,  at  a  bound,  had 
conceived  this  transcendent  project.  Such  mental  feats  as  this  cannot  be  considered  as 
dreams;  they  are  inspired  visions.  Even  as  this,  were  his  visions  of  Cherry  Creek  redeemed, 
the  Auditorium  and  the  Civic  Center,  which  he  saw  clearly  in  the  distant  future,  while 
others  endeavored  vainly  to  foresee  the  things  of  the  immediate  tomorrow. 


72 


APPENDIX 


RESOLUTION  No.  18.  Introduced  by 

Series  of  191 8.  COUNCILMAN  CONLON 

^Memorial  Jtesfolutton 

®f)Er0a£(,  the  Chief  Executive  of  this  City  and  its  most  distinguished  citizen,  has 
passed  to  "  that  undiscovered  country  from  whose  bourne  no  traveller  re- 
turns"; and, 

y£fyttt&&,  the  Council  of  the  City  and  County  of  Denver  is  desirous  of  expressing 
its  profound  devotion  and  its  sincere  appreciation  of  the  great  and  enduring  benefits  which 
his  efforts  have  conferred  upon  our  City,  as  well  as  expressing  its  deep  sorrow  for  the  irrep- 
arable loss  which  has  been  sustained  by  the  community:  Now,  Therefore, 

lie  it  &egolbeb  tip  tfjc  Council  of  tfje  dtp  ana  Count?  of  29enber : 

That  in  the  life  and  life  work  of  Robert  W.  Speer  we  fully  recognize  a  man  of  rare  ability 
and  power,  of  sterling  honesty,  broad  vision  and  keen  foresight,  and  while  his  indomitable 
courage  and  broad  vision  were  the  striking  features  of  his  character,  they  were  not  more 
remarkable  than  the  warm  and  noble  impulses  of  his  heart.  While  he  was  ambitious  and 
aggressive,  it  was  because  of  his  humanity  and  unselfish  patriotism  in  the  interest  of  the 
people  he  served  which  kindled  and  inspired  his  actions  and  steadfastness  of  purpose. 

His  achievements  were  not  personal  except  for  the  satisfaction  he  obtained  from  ren- 
dering service  to  the  city  he  loved.  Possessed  of  shrewd  business  judgment  and  a  per- 
suasive manner,  had  he  been  so  inclined  he  could  have  amassed  great  wealth,  but  he  chose 
rather  to  devote  his  unremitting  energies,  his  unsurpassed  judgment  and  his  world  of  expe- 
rience to  the  glory  of  the  city  and  state  he  loved. 

His  efforts,  however,  were  not  limited  to  Denver,  or  even  to  the  State  of  Colorado,  but 
were  national  in  their  scope.  Since  our  country  has  joined  in  the  great  struggle  for  human- 
ity his  uppermost  thoughts  have  been  directed  to  this  great  cause.  He  has  been  a  leader 
in  establishing  patriotic  movements  and  measures  to  help  "the  boys  over  there",  and  in 
relieving  the  suffering  at  home.  Many  cities  have  adopted  the  ideas  that  originated  with 
him  for  these  purposes,  and  which  have  become  of  incalculable  benefit  to  the  nation. 

Denver  has  gained  wide  fame  as  the  result  of  his  genius  and  from  his  wise  exercise  of 
administrative  and  legislative  power,  until  today  there  is  no  city  in  the  world  further  ad- 
vanced in  civic  development,  in  civic  ideals  and  in  progressive  organizations  and  laws. 
Through  his  constructive  ability  and  unparalleled  accomplishments  Denver  has  been  con- 
verted from  a  frontier  town  to  a  metropolitan  city  and  has  become  renowned  throughout 
the  world  as  the  "City  Beautiful."  His  completed  works  will  perpetuate  his  memory 
more  than  shafts  of  granite  and  tablets  of  bronze. 

The  mind  that  conceived  and  the  hand  that  wrought  these  splendid  works  are  now 
stilled,  but  the  unselfish  spirit  that  inspired  them  is  not  dead,  and  this  spirit  and  the  cher- 
ished memory  of  Robert  W.  Speer  will  ever  live  as  sweet  as  the  distant  melody  of  that  great 
organ  which  was  secured  through  his  untiring  perseverance. 

Passed  by  the  Council  and  signed  by  its  President  this  20th  day  of  May,  A.  D.  1918. 

Louis  F.  BARTELS,  President. 

Signed  and  approved  by  me  this  22nd  day 
Attested  by  me  with  the  corporate  seal  of  of  May,  1918. 

the  City  and  County  of  Denver.  W.  F.  R.  MILLS,  Mayor. 

CHARLES  A.  LAMMERS,  Clerk  and  Recorder 

ex-officio  Clerk  of  City  and  County  of  Denver. 
By  W.  S.  PECK,  Deputy  Clerk. 

74 


ADDRESSES  OF  ROBERT  W.  SPEER 


GIVE  WHILE  YOU  LIVE 

One  of  R.  W.  Spell's  Semi-annual  Speeches 
Before  the  Denver  Civic  and  Commercial  Association,  December  S,  1916 


GENTLEMEN: — As  we  look  down  the  highway  of  the  past 
we  find  that  men  have  been  measured  by  what  they  have 
done — not  by  what  they  have  gathered.  History  forgets 
what  men  possessed,  or  the  luxury  in  which  they  lived. 

A  man  who  does  not  reflect  more  sunshine  than  gloom 
is  a  failure  in  life.  We  must  all  do  something  to  help  others 
if  we  want  to  be  remembered  longer  than  it  requires  sod  to 
grow  on  our  graves.  Many  people  by  death  produce  more 
secret  joy  than  true  sorrow;  if  a  person  is  dependent  death 
brings  a  sense  of  relief  even  to  friends;  if  independent,  the 
estate  often  receives  more  attention  than  the  memory  of 
the  departed. 

I  have  stood  before  the  graves  of  many  wealthy  men  in 
our  cities  of  the  dead,  and  asked  myself  the  question,  "Is 
life  a  success  which  is  entirely  spent  in  a  struggle  for  gold, 
and  ends  in  a  forgotten  and  neglected  marble  slab?"  Must 
the  name  of  a  leader  in  wealth  or  business  be  cut  in  marble 
to  be  remembered  even  by  his  associates  in  daily  life? 
Those  who  come  after  us  care  nothing  for  names — it  is  only 
good  deeds  and  kind  acts  which  live  and  are  remembered. 

One  of  the  most  neglected  ways  in  which  people  can 
make  themselves  bigger  and  better  is  by  helping  to  make 
the  city  in  which  they  live  more  attractive. 

Ugly  things  do  not  please.  It  is  so  much  easier  to  love 
a  thing  of  beauty — and  this  applies  to  cities  as  well  as  to 
persons  and  things.  Fountains,  statues,  artistic  lights, 
music,  playgrounds,  parks,  etc.,  make  people  love  the  place 
in  which  they  live.  Every  time  a  private  citizen,  by  gift 
or  otherwise,  adds  to  a  city's  beauty,  he  kindles  the  spirit 
of  pride  in  other  citizens.  One  man  truly  proud  of  his  city 
is  worth  a  hundred  well-meaning  but  indifferent  persons. 

Denver  is  a  young  city,  and  while  her  public  gifts  will 
not  compare  with  many  older  cities,  yet  she  has  made  a 
start,  and  her  citizens  are  at  heart  as  generous  and  have  as 
much  local  pride  as  the  people  of  any  other  section  of  the 
country. 

Let  me  call  attention  to  some  of  the  things  we  now 
enjoy  which  have  been  provided  by  public  benefactors: 

The  George  W.  Clayton  School  for  Orphan  Boys  was 
built  and  maintained  out  of  a  gift  of  $2,500,000  left  in  trust 
to  the  city.  So  long  as  Denver  stands  this  institution  will 
be  lifting  unfortunate  boys  out  of  temptation  and  want — 
fitting  them  for  higher  vocations  of  life.  William  Barth 
by  his  will  added  $25,000  to  this  school  fund. 

The  Colorado  Museum  of  Natural  History  is  the  reposi- 
tory of  many  interesting  and  valuable  gifts  to  Denver.  The 
building  itself  was  partially  erected  through  private  con- 
tributions—a total  of  $50,000  having  been  provided  by 
public-spirited  citizens. 

Chief  among  the  museum  gifts  in  interest  and  value  is 
the  Campion  gold  collection,  a  crystalline  gold  ezhibit  un- 
equaled  anywhere  in  the  world.  It  was  presented  by  John 
F.  Campion,  a  fitting  gift  from  a  successful  mining  man. 

The  collection  of  Chinese  and  Japanese  bronzes  and 
porcelain,  collected  by  Walter  C.  Mead  and  presented  to  the 
museum,  is  an  exhibit  of  Oriental  art  of  exceptional  interest. 

Other  exhibits  presented  by  public  spirited  citizens 
might  be  cited  that  possess  unique  points  of  interest,  as,  for 
instance:  The  stalactite  cave,  excavated  from  one  of  their 


Mexican  mines  by  Dennis  Sullivan,  of  Denver,  and  Grant 
B.  Schley,  of  New  York,  and  presented  by  them  to  the 
museum. 

The  Porter-Pratt  mineral  collection,  collected  by  Mary 
Kimble  Pratt  and  presented  to  the  city  by  Henry  M.  Porter. 

The  Cupid  and  Psyche,  in  marble,  recently  presented 
by  Lawrence  C.  Phipps,  Sr.,  is  a  fine  example  of  art;  while 
the  moose  group,  presented  by  Harry  C.  James,  and  the 
grizzly  bear  group,  presented  by  J.  A.  McGuire,  show  that 
Denver  citizens  have  at  heart  the  preservation  of  a  native 
animal  exhibit. 

The  Artists'  Club  has  started  a  collection  of  choice 
pictures  for  a  municipal  art  gallery. 

The  Cheesman  memorial  pavilion,  a  classic  structure 
constructed  of  Colorado  marble  at  a  cost  of  $100,000,  was 
erected  in  memory  of  the  late  Walter  S.  Cheesman  by  Mrs. 
Cheesman  and  Mrs.  Gladys  Cheesman  Evans  to  perpet- 
uate the  memory  of  a  husband  and  father. 

The  Pioneer  monument,  symbolic  of  the  terrors  and  the 
triumphs  of  Colorado  pioneers,  was  erected  by  private  sub- 
scriptions at  a  cost  of  $75,000,  largely  through  the  efforts 
of  John  S.  Flower. 

The  strong  spirit  of  Scotch  nationality  inspired  the  Cale- 
donian Club  of  Colorado  to  erect  the  Burns  monument  in 
City  Park  at  a  cost  of  $9,000. 

The  Carnegie  gifts  for  public  libraries  and  branches 
amounted  to  $280,000. 

The  McLellan  gate,  costing  $13,000,  was  erected  in  the 
effort  to  stir  in  Denver  citizens  a  sense  of  civic  pride  that 
would  cause  them  to  beautify  their  city  by  architectural  and 
art  features.  W.  W.  McLellan,  who  built  this  gate,  is  a 
man  of  moderate  means,  and  I  love  to  hold  this  gift  up  as  an 
example  to  our  men  of  wealth. 

The  Sopris  gate,  costing  $5,000,  stands  in  memory  of 
Richard  Sopris,  once  mayor  of  Denver,  after  whom  Mount 
Sopris  was  named.  His  children  erected  it  in  memory  of 
their  father. 

The  attractiveness  of  the  auditorium  is  immeasurably 
heightened  by  the  great  allegorical  drop  curtain  and  the  red 
plush  draperies  that  soften  the  harsh  appearance  of  the 
concrete.  The  Colorado  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution,  thus  demonstrated  a  patriotism  that  is 
always  theirs  by  this  $10,000  gift. 

The  Welcome  Arch,  which  cost  $25,000,  is  another  ex- 
ample of  the  co-operative  spirit  found  in  the  city.  A  few 
months  ago  Mrs.  Hallack  deeded  a  block  of  ground  to  the 
city  for  a  playground.  Mrs.  Isaac  Berlin  presented  a 
drinking  fountain.  The  citizens  of  Elyria,  a  concrete 
bwimming  pool. 

The  city  has  not  yet  been  able  to  avail  itself  of  bequests 
that  have  been  made  by  Benjamin  Salzer,  who  left  $5,000 
for  the  erection  of  a  drinking  fountain;  or  of  the  $75,000 
bequest  left  by  John  H.  P.  Voorhies  for  improving  the 
civic  center. 

Within  a  few  weeks  Joshua  Monti  left  $15,000  for  an 
ornamental  gate  at  some  park  entrance. 

These  and  many  minor  gifts  not  mentioned  are  the 
pioneers  in  Denver  city  giving — they  have  opened  the  way 
which  others  may  travel  with  true  pleasure  and  lasting  profit. 


75 


Future  monuments  will  be  erected  to  men  for  keeping 
out  of  war,  not  for  leading  others  in  battle;  for  lifting  bur- 
dens, not  for  gathering  gold;  for  starting  waves  of  happi- 
ness, rather  than  currents  of  selfishness  and  greed.  These 
monuments  will  be  built  by  loving  hands  and  thankful 
hearts,  and  located  where  the  people  live — not  in  ceme- 
teries. Tombs,  mausoleums  and  shafts  in  cities  of  the 
dead,  depress,  spread  fear  and  gloom;  while  monumental 
fountains,  inspiring  sculpture,  educational  art,  music,  parks 
and  playgrounds,  scattered  among  the  people,  spread  sun- 
shine and  joy  through  future  generations.  We  all  know 
that  the  good  a  man  does  lives  after  him,  and  I  believe  that 
he  cannot  go  anywhere  after  death  that  the  pulsations  for 
good  he  started  in  life  will  not  reach  him  and  bless  him. 

There  are  niches  all  over  Denver  which  should  be  filled 
with  works  of  art  in  honor  and  in  memory  of  men  now  dead, 
for  the  important  part  they  played  in  our  growth  and  de- 
velopment. Governor  Gilpin,  Governor  Evans,  Senator 
Hill,  Senator  Wolcott,  D.  H.  Moffat,  W.  H.  James,  H.  A. 
W.  Tabor,  Myron  Reed  and  others  deserve  something  that 
will  reach  the  eye,  touch  the  heart  and  continue  grateful 
thoughts  as  years  go  by. 

Denver  needs  so  many  things  today  which  cannot  be 
paid  for  from  general  taxation.  It  is  so  in  all  cities,  yet  I 
am  glad  that  this  condition  prevails,  for  it  gives  men  who 
have  been  successful  in  life  the  opportunity  they  need  to 
give.  Most  men  are  so  busy  chasing  the  dollar  that  they 
neglect  golden  opportunities  for  happiness.  Too  much 
wealth  is  as  much  a  curse  to  a  community  as  too  much 
poverty.  It  takes  a  bigger  man  rightly  to  give  away  a 
fortune  than  it  does  to  make  it. 

The  struggles  and  battles  of  life  have  a  tendency  to  make 
men  thoughtless  and  indifferent  of  others — one  financial 
success  only  makes  them  more  anxious  for  another.  Occa- 
sionally some  jar  in  life  throws  a  man  for  a  time  out  of  his 
accustomed  channel,  and  when  he  wipes  away  a  few  tears, 
binds  up  a  few  wounds,  his  heart  muscles  relax,  the  pulsa- 
tions become  natural,  and  he  wants  to  plant  something  that 
will  blossom  and  bear  wholesome  fruit  for  those  who  are  to 
come  after  him. 

Let  me  suggest  a  few  of  Denver's  needs  where  public- 
spirited  citizens  can  help. 

A  park  gateway  at  the  esplanade  entrance  to  the  City 
Park,  with  concrete  pylons  about  forty  feet  high,  balustrades 
and  fountain,  would  stand  for  ages  and  fittingly  express  a 
kind  thought  of  some  one  for  Denver. 

The  city  owns  a  number  of  playgrounds  which  need 
equipment.  I  hope  that  some  citizen,  in  memory  of  a 
child  dead — or  in  honor  of  one  living — will  furnish  the 
equipment  for  a  modern,  up-to-date  playground,  and  per- 
mit us  to  name  it  after  such  a  child. 

Denver's  auditorium  should  have  one  of  the  best  pipe 
organs  in  the  world,  where  recitals  could  be  given  each  day 
for  the  pleasure  of  our  own  people  and  the  stranger  within 
our  gates. 

A  social  center  building,  with  a  branch  library,  would 
brighten  and  better  the  lives  of  our  Globeville  citizens. 

A  municipal  art  gallery  should  balance  our  public  library 
on  the  civic  center. 

Artistic  and  useful  drinking  fountains  scattered  through- 
out the  busy  part  of  the  city  would  enable  thousands  daily 
to  drink  the  purest  of  water — through  the  kindness  of  some 
generous-hearted  citizen. 

Our  streets  and  parks  are  almost  barren  of  modern 
sculpture.  A  social  center  building  is  needed  in  our  Jewish 
quarters.  A  bathhouse  building  in  Elyria. 

Our  animals  in  the  City  Park  need  new  homes.  Prison 
bars  can  be  done  away  with.  Live  animals  can  have  as 
proper  setting  as  dead  ones  in  our  museum.  Concrete 
rocks,  waterfalls,  trees,  etc.,  with  a  moat  in  front,  would 
make  animals  even  in  captivity  feel  and  look  at  home. 

We  need  a  magnificent  fountain  in  our  civic  center;  an 
artistic  bandstand;  colonnades  of  Colorado  marble  consti- 


tuting a  court  of  honor,  where  the  names  of  those  who  have 
contributed  to  Denver's  beauty  and  betterment  shall  be 
carved  in  granite. 

A  free  highway  to  the  summit  of  Mount  Evans  would 
bring  the  equals  of  some  of  the  grandest  views  of  Switzer- 
land within  fifty  miles  of  Denver.  Each  summer  an  ever- 
increasing  throng  would  travel  up  this  road  of  scenic  won- 
ders and  return  with  inspiration  to  do  bigger  and  better 
things.  Big  views  make  big  thoughts  and  big  thoughts 
make  big  men. 

Many  of  us  have  passed  the  summit  and  are  sliding 
down  the  hill  of  life.  It  pays  us  all  at  times  to  take  an  in- 
ventory of  ourselves,  especially  when  we  are  near  the  end 
of  the  trail,  and  to  ask,  "What  have  we  done  to  make  the 
path  easier  for  those  who  are  to  follow?  Have  we  lessened 
any  grades?  Thrown  out  rocks?  Have  we  built  any 
shelter  along  the  way?  Cut  out  underbrush  and  opened 
up  vistas  which  inspire  and  stimulate  the  best  side  of  man?" 

I  am  proud  to  announce  that  we  have  citizens  who  are 
planting  roses  along  life's  highway,  where  the  fragrance  can 
be  enjoyed  by  all  our  people.  One  of  our  successful  and 
most  honored  citizens  has  contracted  with  Lorado  Taft,  of 
Chicago,  to  produce  one  of  the  most  beautiful  monumental 
fountains  to  be  found  in  this  or  any  other  country.  It  will 
be  located  in  the  civic  center,  where  the  Donald  building 
now  stands,  on  the  south  triangle  corresponding  with  the 
Pioneers'  monument  on  the  north. 

The  donor  does  not  desire  to  have  his  name  mentioned 
at  this  time,  but  I  feel  that  the  magnitude  of  the  gift,  to- 
gether with  the  high  character  of  the  man  giving  it,  is  of  so 
much  importance  to  this  community,  and  of  so  much  value 
as  a  stimulant  to  others,  that  I  am  going  to  give  his  name 
and  ask  his  forgiveness  afterward.  Joseph  A.  Thatcher, 
known  and  loved  by  us  all,  is  the  generous  giver.  Mr. 
Thatcher  realizes  that  it  is  the  wheat  we  sow — not  the 
wheat  we  garner — that  brings  the  increase.  May  this 
munificent  act  add  years  to  his  life — that  he  may  see  more 
of  the  harvest  of  pleasure  and  happiness  resulting  from  his 
planting. 

A  gentleman  who  has  resided  here  for  many  years,  and 
who  loves  Denver,  will  erect  in  the  business  section  of  the 
city  street  drinking  fountains  which  will  be  both  attractive 
and  useful.  He  will  not  permit  me  to  use  his  name,  but  we 
will  all  drink  with  him  and  to  him  as  the  years  go  by. 

It  is  a  pleasure  for  me  to  announce  that  the  esplanade 
entrance  to  the  City  Park  is  to  have  a  fitting  gateway— and 
it  is  to  be  erected  in  memory  of  Dennis  Sullivan,  who  was 
known  to  most  of  us  as  a  man  always  true  to  his  friends. 
He  was  strong  in  his  likes,  and  perhaps  in  his  dislikes.  Yet 
all  over  this  city  you  will  find  persons  whom  he  has  helped, 
without  any  publicity.  I  will  never  forget,  as  a  poor  boy 
and  a  stranger,  trying  to  gain  health  and  make  a  living,  how 
in  many  ways  he  helped  and  encouraged  me.  Those  of  us 
who  enjoyed  his  friendship  and  knew  his  worth  will,  as  we 
pass  through  this  gateway  in  his  honor,  throw  out  grateful 
thoughts  to  his  memory.  This  ornamental  gateway  will 
cost  320,000. 

Another  citizen,  known  for  his  good  deeds,  has  author- 
ized me  to  say  that  he  will  expend  310,000  for  a  park  gate- 
way. The  plans  and  location  will  be  worked  out  during  the 
winter  and  the  work  completed  during  the  summer.  He 
does  not  wish  me  to  use  his  name,  but  I  do  want  to  say  that 
he  stands  for  the  highest  type  of  manhood  and  is  a  business 
leader  in  Denver. 

For  many  years  I  have  been  anxious  to  see  one  of  the 
best  pipe  organs  in  this  country  placed  in  our  municipal 
auditorium.  The  city  let  a  contract  for  such  an  organ 
during  my  former  administration  as  mayor,  to  cost  about 
350,000,  but  it  was  not  built.  Notwithstanding  the  in- 
crease in  cost  of  material  and  labor,  this  contract  can  be 
carried  out  today.  Knowing  that  the  money  for  such  a 
purpose  could  not  be  taken  at  this  time  from  the  city's  gen- 
eral revenue,  as  taxes  must  be  lowered,  I  have  asked  a  num- 
ber of  corporations  and  individuals  to  help  make  this  pur- 


76 


chase  and  they  have  made  liberal  subscriptions.  I  hold  in 

jny  hand  pledges  for  820,000,  as  follows: 

The  Denver  Gas  and  Electric  Light  Com- 
pany  85,000 

The  Mountain  States  Telephone  and  Tele- 
graph Company 3,500 

Denver  Union  Water  Company 2,500 

The  Denver  Tramway  Company 2,500 

A  friendly  corporation 2,500 

The  Denver  Sewer  Pipe  and  Clay  Company  1,000 

Henry  M.  Porter 1,000 

E.  E.  Sommers 1,000 

A  friend  to  Denver 1,000 

We  are  fortunate  in  having  in  this  city  an  organization 
known  as  the  Rotary  Club,  which  stands  for  service — the 
kind  of  service  that  makes  men  better  and  happier.  They 


believe  that  "He  profits  most  who  serves  best."  Their 
board  of  directors  has  informed  me  that  they  will  raise  the 
balance  of  the  money  necessary  to  secure  this  great  organ. 
The  use  of  the  words  "mister"  and  "failure"  is  prohibited 
at  all  their  meetings.  They  do  not  intend  to  make  this 
effort  a  burden  on  any  one,  but  to  give  those  who  can  afford 
it  an  opportunity  to  help  place  the  best  of  organ  music 
where  it  can  be  enjoyed  without  cost  by  rich  and  poor  alike. 
Truly  a  Rotarian  civic  service. 

We  start  in  the  year  1917  with  gifts  to  the  city  amount- 
ing to  8275,000,  8185,000  from  the  living  and  890,000  from 
the  estates  of  those  who  have  passed  away.  This  is  a 
splendid  showing,  and  I  feel  confident  that,  before  the  year 
ends,  this  amount  of  gifts  from  the  living  will  be  largely 
increased.  I  am  proud  to  be  mayor  of  such  a  city. 

In  closing,  let  me  impress  upon  you  that  what  a  man 
does  for  himself  fades  with  him — what  he  does  for  a  com- 
munity lives  long  after  he  is  gone. 


HAPPINESS 

An  Address  before  the  Denver  Chapter, 

American  Institute  of  Bankers,  June  IS,  1913 

By  R.  W.  Speer 


LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: — The  Far  East,  on  the  other 
side  of  the  World,  is  so  big,  its  people  so  numerous,  and  its 
customs  so  different,  that  I  could  not  do  the  subject  justice 
in  the  few  moments  at  my  disposal  tonight,  so,  with  your 
permission,  I  will  confine  my  remarks  to  things  nearer  home 
and  in  closer  touch  with  The  Denver  Chapter  of  the  Ameri- 
can Institute  of  Bankers. 

There  are  more  struggles  for  money  than  for  anything 
else  in  life,  and  it  is  only  natural  that  the  men  who  handle 
it,  and  make  us  keep  our  bank  balances  in  black  instead  of 
red,  should  be  interesting  to  us  all.  The  general  in  the  army 
gets  the  credit  for  a  victory  largely  won  by  his  men;  a 
banker  makes  a  reputation  on  the  faithful  services,  good 
judgment  and  courteous  treatment  of  those  under  him. 
It  is  hard  to  estimate,  in  dollars,  the  value  of  faithful  helpers 
in  any  enterprise.  There  are  some  banks  and  corporations 
which  do  not  seem  to  realize  the  debt  they  owe  for  faithful 
service;  others  are  ever  ready  to  appreciate  and  reward 
merit. 

We  judge  men  too  much  by  what  they  hone  and  too  little 
by  what  they  are.  The  light  from  gold  seems  to  shine  so 
brilliantly  upon  many  people  that  the  more  delicate  and 
beautiful  colors  in  life  cannot  be  seen.  What  our  country 
needs  today  above  everything  else  is  different  weights  than 
gold  and  silver  with  which  to  weigh  success.  Small  things 
well  done;  kindness  and  justice  to  all,  make  a  bigger  man 
than  the  drawing  of  a  successful  ticket  in  the  lottery  of 
business. 

Happiness,  after  all,  is  the  mainspring  of  action  the 
whole  world  around.  Men  differ  as  to  what  it  is,  how  to 
get  it,  and  how  to  keep  it.  Many  believe  happiness  is  the 
possession  of  things  and  what  they  will  procure,  when,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  it  is  a  condition  produced  by  what  radiates 
from  a  man. 

A  mistake  is  made  by  some  in  thinking  that  it  can  be 
enjoyed  alone,  bottled  up  within  themselves,  forgetting 
what  Byron  said: 

"All  who  would  win 
Must  share  it; 
Happiness  was  born  a  twin." 

The  live  question  before  us  all  is, — How  to  get  it?  We 
are  striving  for  it  in  various  ways.  The  dollar  route  seems 
to  be  the  most  popular,  and  everywhere  we  find  muscle, 
brain  and  energy  put  to  their  utmost  test  to  gain  it.  Some 
trample  upon  friends  and  honor  to  win  the  prize,  and  when 


wealth  has  been  attained  they  find  that  the  struggle  has  so 
twisted  and  snarled  their  own  lives  that  happiness  refuses 
to  live  with  them. 

A  short  time  ago  I  talked  with  a  man  near  the  end  of 
life's  journey,  who  had  made  a  success  in  gathering  dollars, 
and  he  said  that  in  looking  back  over  it  all,  his  happiest 
days  were  when  he  was  working  hard  from  morning  until 
night,  enjoying  the  best  of  health,  and  laying  away  about 
five  hundred  dollars  a  year.  Wealth  had  brought  with  it  a 
weight  of  responsibility,  much  trouble  and  care.  The  prize 
for  which  he  had  striven  proved  to  be  a  yoke  which  he  him- 
self had  placed  around  his  neck,  and  it  had  calloused  and 
bruised  some  of  the  sweetest  things  in  life. 

Religion  links  happiness  to  many;  life  in  touch  with  the 
Creator  brings  peace  and  contentment,  which  are  the  most 
important  parts  of  happiness;  the  full  realization  is  to  come 
after  death.  Office,  honor  and  power  are  held  up  as  gate- 
ways, and,  while  they  may  lead  in  the  right  direction,  will 
never  reach  the  desired  goal.  Some  seek  and  find  happiness 
in  learning,  music  and  art.  Pleasure  and  fast  living  may 
fool  some  for  a  time,  but  happiness  must  be  fed  on  pure 
food  to  retain  its  healthy  growth. 

Success  in  a  profession  is  a  near  relative  of  happiness, 
but  so  often  there  are  other  relatives  with  whom  it  cannot 
agree. 

Business  for  the  love  of  it,  more  than  for  the  money  in 
it,  brings  a  certain  kind  of  happiness,  which  would  be  com- 
plete if  the  men  engaged  in  it  could  only  learn  to  distribute, 
as  well  as  they  have  learned  to  gather.  It  takes  a  bigger 
man  properly  to  do  the  right  thing  with  money  than  it  does 
to  make  it.  How  many  men  have  built  foundations  for 
monuments  and  failed  to  erect  the  shaft! 

In  the  interior  of  Java  I  found  a  native  family  which 
had  no  money;  wanted  none;  claimed  to  be  contented  and 
happy.  I  was  surprised  to  find  the  man,  apparently  of  the 
lower  class,  speak  English,  and  I  asked  him  where  he  had 
learned  it.  He  told  me  that  as  a  young  man  he  had  been  a 
sailor;  was  in  New  York  and  many  of  the  leading  cities  of 
the  world;  that  as  fast  as  he  made  money  he  had  spent  it  for 
clothes,  entertainment,  etc.,  as  did  his  companions.  For 
many  years  he  had  worked  hard,  but  had  saved  nothing;  in 
fact,  was  both  in  debt  and  in  trouble.  Finally,  he  decided 
that  it  was  a  mistake  to  work;  that  more  real  happiness 
could  be  found  in  a  simple  life.  He  returned  to  Java, 
married,  and  was  raising  a  large  family  without  a  dollar. 
His  bamboo  house  was  built  by  himself  and  wife;  it  was 


77 


located  in  the  midst  of  tropical  vegetation;  a  mountain 
stream  dashed  down  over  the  rocks  near  by;  in  a  small  gar- 
den he  raised  some  rice  and  tobacco;  his  children  wore  no 
clothes;  he  and  his  wife  only  loin  cloths.  He  picked  bananas 
as  he  wanted  them;  gathered  bread  fruit  as  he  needed  it; 
and  if  he  did  not  want  to  climb  trees  for  cocoanuts,  he 
waited  until  they  fell  to  the  ground.  As  a  man  forty  years 
of  age,  he  declared  that  he  was  happy  and  free  from  care. 
He  said:  "What  more  could  any  man  with  money  get  out 
of  life?"  I  asked  him  if  he  did  not  feel  that  his  children 
should  be  educated,  and  he  said:  "No;  education  would 
make  them  long  for  things  which  they  could  not  have; 
there  is  more  true  happiness  for  them  as  they  are."  I  do 
not  mention  this  as  an  example  to  follow,  for  the  world 
cannot  move  backwards,  but  only  to  emphasize  the  fact  that 
money  is  not  all  there  is  to  life. 

A  certain  amount  of  this  world's  goods  is  necessary  for 
life  and  comfort.  Honest  effort  will  not  drive  away  hap- 
piness, but  we  must  all  learn  and  realize  that  it  can  be 
attained  and  retained  without  wealth. 

No  man  can  successfully  wear  the  coat  of  happiness  in 
his  office  and  go  in  his  shirt-sleeves  at  home. 

Human  nature  is  a  strange  thing.  When  some  people 
find  that  they  cannot  be  happy  themselves  they  set  out  to 
see  that  no  one  else  shall  be.  They  create  distrust,  carry 
tales,  love  scandal,  and  try  to  make  the  heart-strings  of 
others  produce  sadder  notes  than  their  own. 

Happiness  makes  us  optimistic,  and  the  lack  of  it  en- 
courages the  pessimist. 


We  have  all  gone  down  town  in  the  morning  when  every 
person  we  met  seemed  to  have  gotten  out  of  bed  in  the 
wrong  way;  a  grunt  instead  of  a  Good  Morning;  complaints 
about  everything  going  to  the  dogs;  the  city,  the  state,  the 
nation,  all  wrong,  until,  by  the  time  we  had  reached  our 
office,  we  had  taken  on  the  same  spirit.  Depressed  and 
depressing,  we  were  unable  properly  to  do  our  day's  work. 
But  the  next  day  everybody  seemed  to  be  smiling,  radiating 
sunshine.  "Times  have  been  quiet,  but  they  are  improv- 
ing." "We  have  so  many  natural  advantages  that  it  is 
impossible  to  keep  us  down."  "You  are  looking  fine!" 
"Glad  to  see  you!"  Then  you  enter  your  office  full  of 
happiness  and  courage,  capable  of  accomplishing  twice  what 
you  did  the  day  before. 

Happiness  is  contagious,  and  it  is  valuable  as  an  asset 
to  any  city;  encourage  it,  and  mountains  will  drop  into 
mole  hills;  new  pulsations  of  life  will  throb  in  every  branch 
of  business. 

The  only  way  to  keep  happiness  is  to  be  continually  giv- 
ing it  to  others.  It  is  different  from  any  other  possession, 
because  the  more  you  give  away  the  more  you  have.  Many 
selfish  people  have  lost  what  little  they  had,  because  they 
failed  to  learn  this  fact. 

Silks  may  make  more  rustle  than  cotton;  a  mansion  may 
be  built  next  to  your  cottage;  automobiles  may  pass  you 
while  walking  along  the  roadway,  but  if  you  have  happiness 
within,  radiating  outward,  you  have  the  most  valuable  thing 
in  life,  and  a  key  which  will  help  you  unlock  the  future. 


HUMILITY 

Remarks  of  R.  W.  Speer 
Before  the  Denver  Rotary  Club,  January,  1918 


GENTLEMEN: — Among  Rotarians  you  will  find  the  best 
of  men,  but  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  Pride  and  her  sister, 
Self-Satisfaction,  have  been  trying  to  flirt  with  many  mem- 
bers of  this  club.  I  feel  that  I  am  serving  best,  if  I  pull  aside 
our  embroidered  cloaks  and  make  us  look  at  ourselves  in  a 
true  mirror.  Our  limitations  and  imperfections  should 
make  Conceit  take  the  "count"  in  the  first  round. 

Why  should  man  be  proud,  when  with  our  boasted  intel- 
ligence, we  let  specks  of  life  with  little  or  no  brain  power 
surpass  us  in  every  field  of  physical  activity?  A  rabbit  can 
outrun  us;  a  dog  can  outsmell  us;  if  we  had  the  strength  of 
an  ant  in  proportion  to  our  size,  we  could  carry  home  every 
evening  two  or  three  tons  of  coal.  We  cannot  swim  with  a 
duck  or  fly  with  a  bird.  We  may  boast  of  our  athletic 
build,  but  a  flea  can  jump  five  hundred  times  its  height,  and 
to  equal  it  in  proportion  to  our  size,  we  should  be  able  to 
jump  half  a  mile.  Few  of  us  have  the  contentment  of  a 
cow,  or  the  persistent  energy  of  a  bee.  If  the  special  gifts 
or  powers  distributed  in  various  animals  around  us  could  be 
concentrated  in  any  one  of  us,  he  would  be  known  as  the 
most  wonderful  man  in  the  community. 

In  many  ways  lifeless  matter  puts  us  to  shame.  Five 
gallons  of  gasoline  will  carry  us  farther  in  three  hours  than 
we  could  carry  the  gasoline  in  three  days.  We  boast  of  our 
discoveries  in  electricity,  but  what  do  we  really  know  about 
it?  In  mid-ocean  I  watched  the  wireless  operator  break 
his  electric  current  into  dots  and  dashes,  then,  with  a  re- 
ceiver to  my  ears,  heard  an  almost  instantaneous  reply 
come  out  of  space  from  a  vessel  more  than  a  thousand  miles 
away.  I  realized  then,  as  I  never  did  before,  that  man  is 
but  a  fly  on  the  fringe  of  some  mighty  power  beyond. 

Do  not  be  egotistical  about  ancestors.  Many  claim 
that  if  we  go  back  far  enough  we  will  find  that  our  great 
grandfathers  caught  the  cocoanuts  as  the  baboon  dropped 
them  from  the  tree  top. 

Animals,  grain  and  vegetables  have  life,  and  suffer  when 
injured  the  same  as  any  of  us.  Their  cups  of  pain  and 


sorrow  may  not  hold  as  much  as  ours,  but  they  are  real  and 
can  be  made  to  overflow.  The  life  of  grain  is  concentrated 
in  the  seed,  but  we  crush  and  grind  it  until  that  life  is  de- 
stroyed, in  order  that  the  dust  of  its  home  may  contribute 
to  our  growth.  Fruit  and  vegetables  would  live  and  die  a 
natural  death,  but  we  watch  until  they  reach  manhood, 
when  we  pluck  them  from  their  life-sustaining  homes  and 
keep  them  in  agony  as  long  as  possible  by  artificial  means, 
so  that  our  appetites  may  be  satisfied.  Several  days  ago 
this  piece  of  celery  was  torn  from  its  home  and  life-supplying 
elements — because  we  did  not  hear  its  cry  of  anguish,  we 
gave  it  no  thought.  It  has  been  kept  cool  and  moist  to 
prevent  death  and  prolong  suffering,  because  man  wants  to 
eat  it  while  there  is  life  within.  When  we  invent  some 
instrument  which  will  enable  us  to  recognize  the  suffering 
of  vegetable  and  plant  life,  we  will  no  more  think  of  taking 
cut  flowers  and  burning  the  stems  to  keep  them  from  bleed- 
ing to  death,  than  we  would  think  today  of  applying  the 
same  treatment  to  an  animal. 

We  kill  to  live.  We  are  daily  destroying  life  and  eating 
carcasses  in  order  that  we  may  exist.  Last  year  over  three 
million  animal  prisoners  passed  through  our  Stockyard 
prison  on  their  way  to  death.  Each  day  during  this  year 
nine  thousand  cattle,  hogs  and  sheep,  that  have  in  no  way 
wronged  man,  will  be  forcibly  taken  from  their  peaceable 
surroundings  and  sold  in  this  city  for  slaughter,  in  order  that 
intellectual  and  civilized  man  may  grow  strong  and  fat. 
Led  by  the  Buddhist,  one-fourth  of  the  people  of  the  world 
refuse  to  take  life  which  they  cannot  give  back,  and  they 
seem  to  get  along  nicely  by  making  every  day  a  meatless 
day.  We  could  the  better  serve  our  Country  in  these  trying 
times  by  following  their  example! 

We  are  most  cruel  without  knowing  it;  we  are  egotistical 
without  reason  for  it. 

Rotarians,  don't  be  proud! 


78 


TWO  CURRENCIES 

Address  of  Welcome  to  the  Thirty-fourth  Annual 

Convention  of  the  American  Bankers'  Association 

September  30, 1908 


MR.  PRESIDENT,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: 

Money  is  sought  for  more  universally  than  anything  else 
in  life,  and  it  is  natural  that  the  men  who  handle  and,  to  a 
large  extent,  control  the  currency  of  this  country,  should  be 
looked  up  to  by  all  classes  of  people.  Denver,  as  one  of  the 
newest  cities  of  this  country,  is  especially  glad  to  greet  and 
welcome  your  association.  You  have  heard  of  western  hos- 
pitality. It  is  only  nature,  freed  from  restraints  and  for- 
malities— an  honest  impulse  coming  directly  from  the  heart. 

Denver  is  young  in  years,  but  she  is  great  in  expecta- 
tions. Her  credit  is  good  because  she  has  large  assets  and 
promptly  meets  her  obligations.  She  has  never  overdrawn 
her  account  and,  for  her  age  and  size,  has  as  small  a  debt  as 
any  city  in  this  country. 

In  our  journey  through  life  we  devote  our  energy,  time 
and  best  thought  along  special  lines.  Your  views  are 
sought  after  on  financial  questions  because  you  have  made 
them  your  special  study.  Yet  I  believe  that  we  all,  or 
many  of  us,  become  so  intent  upon  our  own  work  that  we 
fail  fully  to  appreciate  and  understand  the  work  of  others. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  currency;  one  issued  by  the  gov- 
ernment, and  sought  for  what  it  gets;  the  other  issued  from 
the  heart,  and  valuable  for  what  it  gives.  Hand  money 
and  heart  money!  They  are  both  issued  in  all  denomina- 
tions, so  as  to  meet  our  every  want.  We  are  rated  by  the 
amount  we  can  gather  in  of  the  one,  and  give  away  of  the 
other.  In  one  case  we  are  enriched  by  getting  it,  while  in 


the  other  case  we  are  enriched  by  giving  it.  There  are  debts 
and  obligations  which  can  and  must  be  paid  in  cash,  but 
there  are  others  which  can  be  paid  only  in  deeds,  kind  words 
and  good  thoughts.  These  currencies  are  not  interchange- 
able, and  many  mistakes  have  been  made  in  life  by  trying 
to  pay  the  debt  of  the  one  with  the  money  of  the  other. 
Injustice  has  ever  been  done  in  judging  men  by  their  heads 
and  cash,  rather  than  by  their  hearts  and  deeds.  I  have 
known  men  rich  in  one  currency  to  be  paupers  in  the  other. 
Friends,  health  and  happiness  have  been  sacrificed  for  gold 
and  silver,  which  only  accompanies  us  to  the  grave,  while 
heart  money  scatters  sunshine  and  roses  in  this  life,  and 
passes  death  as  an  individual  credit  in  the  life  to  come. 

We  judge  men  too  much  by  their  accumulations.  The 
time  will  come  when  they  will  be  judged  more  by  their  dis- 
bursements. It  requires  a  greater  man  rightly  to  give  away 
money  than  to  make  it,  and  I  feel  confident  that  it  will  not 
hurt  the  bankers  of  this  country,  and  all  classes  of  people, 
occasionally  to  stop  counting  gold  and  figure  up  their  assets 
in  heart  money. 

It  is  the  earnest  desire  of  our  citizens  that  your  stay  on 
earth  may  be  as  pleasing  as  they  would  have  your  sojourn 
to  be  in  Denver;  and  that  your  journey  after  death  may 
have  as  grand  scenery  and  pleasant  surroundings  as  you 
will  find  on  your  trips  through  Colorado,  where  the  moun- 
tains of  Switzerland  are  united  to  the  Valley  of  the  Nile 
with  ribbons  of  gold. 


ONE-MAN  POWER 

Excerpt  from  an  address  before  the 
Commercial  Club  of  Colorado  Springs,  March  29, 1917 


The  aim  and  purpose  of  all  government,  city,  state  or 
national,  should  be  safety,  prosperity,  and  happiness  for  the 
people.  No  government  can  long  exist  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  governed,  and  that  consent  will  not  be  continued 
from  a  discontented  people.  The  masses  must,  sooner  or 
later,  be  assured  of  an  opportunity  at  all  times  to  make  a 
living,  and  be  provided  against  want  during  old  age,  not  as 
a  matter  of  charity,  but  as  a  duty  of  society  toward  the 
individual. 

The  prosperity  of  a  city  cannot  be  measured  by  its  popu- 
lation. The  welfare  of  its  citizens  is  the  true  yardstick. 
An  individual  is  weak — a  community  is  strong,  and  that 
strength  should  be  used  to  reduce  the  burdens  of  the  people 
and  build  up  the  weak. 

Upon  the  service  rendered,  wrongs  righted,  opportunities 
opened,  and  the  removal  of  the  old  age  nightmare,  will 
largely  depend  the  success  or  failure  of  self-government. 
The  dangers  which  threaten  the  future  will  not  start  in  the 
country — the  city  will  be  the  battlefield.  Solve  the  govern- 
ment of  cities  and  you  have  solved  all  government. 

The  separation  of  the  city  from  state  and  national  elec- 
tions; the  prohibiting  of  party  designations  on  municipal 
ballots,  together  with  the  knowledge  that  cities  are  suffering 
from  inefficiency  by  reason  of  their  being  made  political 


footballs,  are  streaks  of  dawn  on  the  horizon  of  non-partisan 
municipal  government. 

Our  charters  and  laws,  governing  cities,  have  been 
drawn  on  the  theory  that  officials  cannot  be  trusted.  We 
have  attempted  to  provide  how  every  step  shall  be  taken 
to  produce  results.  Unnecessary  charter  provisions,  red 
tape  and  restricting  laws  will  not  make  a  crooked  official 
straight,  but  they  have  often  made  a  straight  official  useless. 

Personally,  I  believe  in  the  concentration  of  all  admin- 
istrative power  in  the  hands  of  one  official.  It  fixes  the  re- 
sponsibility for  good  or  bad  government;  you  know  whom 
to  praise,  and  you  know  whom  to  blame.  Large  powers 
will  produce  a  result  one  way  or  the  other,  and  can  safely 
be  granted  where  you  have  a  recall  in  the  hands  of  the 
people. 

Men  naturally  differ  as  to  what  is  the  best  form  of  city 
government.  Experiments  are  being  tried  everywhere,  and 
what  proves  a  success  in  one  place  is  a  failure  in  another, 
proving  that  the  men  who  administer  are  more  important 
than  the  clothes  they  work  in.  The  kind  of  government 
speaks  louder  than  its  form — the  size  of  officials  means 
more  than  the  size  of  a  council. 

I  am  weak  on  theories.  The  practical  side  of  an  admin- 
istration appeals  to  me.  Results  count  for  more  than  the 
conveyance  in  which  they  are  delivered. 


79 


y 


